Maybe there are other signals that aren’t vulnerable to the same kind of faking, like evidence of integrity and discretion paired with a track record of impact of the type you’re looking for. Seems harder to easily evaluate, but also seems like a more common way to evaluate alignment with a cause’s mission.
Separately, while I’m vegan myself, I think using veganism as a signal is less reliable than it may appear because it appears not to meet the same effectiveness bar as other popular interventions, and there’s honest disagreement within EA on whether EAs should generally follow a vegan diet. I think I’d have the same concerns with using other marginally good but costly lifestyle choices, like donating a kidney, as a signal as well, though I haven’t thought about a lot of individual cases.
Maybe there are other signals that aren’t vulnerable to the same kind of faking, like evidence of integrity and discretion paired with a track record of impact of the type you’re looking for. Seems harder to easily evaluate, but also seems like a more common way to evaluate alignment with a cause’s mission.
Separately, while I’m vegan myself, I think using veganism as a signal is less reliable than it may appear because it appears not to meet the same effectiveness bar as other popular interventions, and there’s honest disagreement within EA on whether EAs should generally follow a vegan diet. I think I’d have the same concerns with using other marginally good but costly lifestyle choices, like donating a kidney, as a signal as well, though I haven’t thought about a lot of individual cases.