You wouldn’t give (or would give less) if you hadn’t signed the pledge
You will would give (more) because you have signed the pledge.
I think a disconnect here is that for many people, including myself, saying “I will do this for life” literally means “I will do this for life”, with the compromise position being “I will do this unless it will end my life.” It’s not a commitment device, it’s a commitment, and if you take it giving less than 10% becomes morally wrong, even if absent the pledge giving 10% would be a bad idea.
Easy—if some year I feel like spending the money on myself; or I’m just too lazy to figure out where to give and do it; or maybe I even forget about giving. Then the pledge reminds me that I thought in the past—and probably also on reflection think now—that I ought to donate the money, and makes me more likely to follow through. Just as if I’d agreed to go to the gym with a friend, etc.
For me, being highly involved in the EA community, this commitment device is probably redundant, but it also doesn’t do any harm.
It’s clear people have different attitudes to how bad it is to break a promise, and how strongly they take the pledge to bind them. For me it’s a statement of my ideals, which I expect to be quite stable. But it’s not a commitment that forces me to act against my better judgement at any future time. Nor would I want it to have that effect on others.
What is the situation where:
Giving is the correct thing to do
You wouldn’t give (or would give less) if you hadn’t signed the pledge
You will would give (more) because you have signed the pledge.
I think a disconnect here is that for many people, including myself, saying “I will do this for life” literally means “I will do this for life”, with the compromise position being “I will do this unless it will end my life.” It’s not a commitment device, it’s a commitment, and if you take it giving less than 10% becomes morally wrong, even if absent the pledge giving 10% would be a bad idea.
Easy—if some year I feel like spending the money on myself; or I’m just too lazy to figure out where to give and do it; or maybe I even forget about giving. Then the pledge reminds me that I thought in the past—and probably also on reflection think now—that I ought to donate the money, and makes me more likely to follow through. Just as if I’d agreed to go to the gym with a friend, etc.
For me, being highly involved in the EA community, this commitment device is probably redundant, but it also doesn’t do any harm.
It’s clear people have different attitudes to how bad it is to break a promise, and how strongly they take the pledge to bind them. For me it’s a statement of my ideals, which I expect to be quite stable. But it’s not a commitment that forces me to act against my better judgement at any future time. Nor would I want it to have that effect on others.