EA is very open about the existence of other powerful motivators: the “warm glow” of philanthropy and the benefits that come from perceived selflessness.
I recall WIlliam MacAskill writing or saying social science research shows giving makes us feel good, and better than we might expect. I don’t remember the original source, but it might be common enough to be in multiple ones. Anyway, I believe he said this as a point to counter how the conception giving so much might be too hard for people. It seems we sometimes might be using that talking point as a promotion tool. I’ve met many people earning to give, but I don’t recall most of them stating receiving a selfishly “warm glow” as a major motivation. While some people feel obligated to do goo, and some morally inclined persons feel earning to give just make sense, most effective altruists I’ve met don’t mention it. Based on my observations, it seems obvious earning to give and being philanthropic makes them feel good for whatever reason, but it’s not what they’re pushing.
Nonetheless, if there’s a wide range of reasons effective altruists pursue earning to give, and even the ways it might make them feel good are varied, it’d be odd if we were pushing something as being less selfless than we actually treat it.
Yeh there is a lot of research showing that giving can make one happier overall, which GWWC summarised here (https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/sites/givingwhatwecan.org/files/attachments/giving-without-sacrifice.pdf). I believe that observing this, and using it to try to motivate people to give, may well be self-defeating though, since it may undercut the grounds for altruistic motivation if we frame giving as (potentially) self-interested. Importantly, I’m not saying that it might simply replace moral motivation with equally or more efficacious non-moral motivation, but that making people think of giving as something that is in their self-interest might reduce their motivation to do it overall: for example, by making them unable to think of it as a sacrifice about which they can feel morally virtuous (and maybe even making them think of it as a form of selfish hypocrisy about which they should feel guilty).
I recall WIlliam MacAskill writing or saying social science research shows giving makes us feel good, and better than we might expect. I don’t remember the original source, but it might be common enough to be in multiple ones. Anyway, I believe he said this as a point to counter how the conception giving so much might be too hard for people. It seems we sometimes might be using that talking point as a promotion tool. I’ve met many people earning to give, but I don’t recall most of them stating receiving a selfishly “warm glow” as a major motivation. While some people feel obligated to do goo, and some morally inclined persons feel earning to give just make sense, most effective altruists I’ve met don’t mention it. Based on my observations, it seems obvious earning to give and being philanthropic makes them feel good for whatever reason, but it’s not what they’re pushing.
Nonetheless, if there’s a wide range of reasons effective altruists pursue earning to give, and even the ways it might make them feel good are varied, it’d be odd if we were pushing something as being less selfless than we actually treat it.
Yeh there is a lot of research showing that giving can make one happier overall, which GWWC summarised here (https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/sites/givingwhatwecan.org/files/attachments/giving-without-sacrifice.pdf). I believe that observing this, and using it to try to motivate people to give, may well be self-defeating though, since it may undercut the grounds for altruistic motivation if we frame giving as (potentially) self-interested. Importantly, I’m not saying that it might simply replace moral motivation with equally or more efficacious non-moral motivation, but that making people think of giving as something that is in their self-interest might reduce their motivation to do it overall: for example, by making them unable to think of it as a sacrifice about which they can feel morally virtuous (and maybe even making them think of it as a form of selfish hypocrisy about which they should feel guilty).
Thanks for responding. You articulated exactly what I wanted to better than I could.