The idea that people always act selfishly is probably a bit extreme. But there’s something very important pointed out in this post: considering selfish incentives is extremely important when thinking about how EA can become more sustainable and grow.
Just a few selfish incentives that I see operating within EA: the forum cash prize, reputation gains within the EA community for donating to effective charities, reputation gains for working for an EA org, being part of a community...
The point here is not that these are bad, but that we should acknowledge that these are selfish incentives, and think about how to best design these selfish incentives to align them with EA goals.
To answertechnicalities’ comment, I’m pretty sure that even the people he lists did what they did at least in part because of a hope for future recognition or because they hoped for approval from only one or two people in their immediate vicinity. Of course, their main motivation was just to do good, but saying they were driven by no selfish incentive whatsoever would be denying human nature.
Also, book recommendation: The Elephant in the Brain
Sure, I agree that most people’s actions have a streak of self-interest, and that posterity could serve as this even in cases of sacrificing your life. I took OP to be making a stronger claim, that it is simply wrong to say that “people have altruistic values” as well.
There’s just something up with saying that these altruistic actions are caused by selfish/social incentives, where the strongest such incentive is ostracism or the death penalty for doing it.
The idea that people always act selfishly is probably a bit extreme. But there’s something very important pointed out in this post: considering selfish incentives is extremely important when thinking about how EA can become more sustainable and grow.
Just a few selfish incentives that I see operating within EA: the forum cash prize, reputation gains within the EA community for donating to effective charities, reputation gains for working for an EA org, being part of a community...
The point here is not that these are bad, but that we should acknowledge that these
are selfish incentives, and think about how to best design these selfish incentives to align them with EA goals.
To answer technicalities’ comment, I’m pretty sure that even the people he lists did what they did at least in part because of a hope for future recognition or because they hoped for approval from only one or two people in their immediate vicinity. Of course, their main motivation was just to do good, but saying they were driven by no selfish incentive whatsoever would be denying human nature.
Also, book recommendation: The Elephant in the Brain
Sure, I agree that most people’s actions have a streak of self-interest, and that posterity could serve as this even in cases of sacrificing your life. I took OP to be making a stronger claim, that it is simply wrong to say that “people have altruistic values” as well.
There’s just something up with saying that these altruistic actions are caused by selfish/social incentives, where the strongest such incentive is ostracism or the death penalty for doing it.