“EA sometimes advocates that giving effectively will increase your happiness. Here’s an 80,000 Hours article (a) to that effect. … This line of argument confuses the effect of donating at all with the effect of donating effectively.”
This article you link to (by me) does not mention giving large amounts, or the effectiveness of charities, or advocate for giving to charity, so it’s hard to see how it could be confusing that issue. I would appreciate if you could edit the article to clarify that.
It also doesn’t claim that giving necessarily makes you happier than spending the money on yourself, only that in a given case it is possible—which it certainly is—and that giving likely provides more satisfaction than not having the money in the first place:
“Giving some money to charity is unlikely to make you less happy, and may well make you happier. … donating money could easily make you happier than spending it on yourself… there’s good reason to think that giving away money will lower your subjective well-being significantly less than not having it in the first place.”
In fact, the article only tangentially discusses donations at all. Nonetheless, I have added some further text to clarify my view.
“EA sometimes advocates that giving effectively will increase your happiness. Here’s an 80,000 Hours article (a) to that effect. … This line of argument confuses the effect of donating at all with the effect of donating effectively.”
This article you link to (by me) does not mention giving large amounts, or the effectiveness of charities, or advocate for giving to charity, so it’s hard to see how it could be confusing that issue. I would appreciate if you could edit the article to clarify that.
It also doesn’t claim that giving necessarily makes you happier than spending the money on yourself, only that in a given case it is possible—which it certainly is—and that giving likely provides more satisfaction than not having the money in the first place:
“Giving some money to charity is unlikely to make you less happy, and may well make you happier. … donating money could easily make you happier than spending it on yourself… there’s good reason to think that giving away money will lower your subjective well-being significantly less than not having it in the first place.”
In fact, the article only tangentially discusses donations at all. Nonetheless, I have added some further text to clarify my view.
Thanks, I edited that part of the piece to get more accurate about 80k’s view & the thing I’m pointing to.
More on what I’m pointing to in this comment.
Thanks, much appreciated Milan! :)