Yeah, I think Psychology of effective giving is probably the best name. Stefan, Lucius and others have published a bunch of stuff on this, which would be good to cover in the article.
This is one of many emerging areas of research at the intersection of psychology and effective altruism:
- psychology of effective giving (Caviola et al. 2014; Caviola, Schubert & Nemirow 2020; Burum, Nowak & Hoffman 2020) - psychology of existential risk (Shubert, Caviola & Faber 2019) - psychology of speciesism (Caviola 2019; Caviola, Everett & Faber 2019; Caviola & Capraro 2020) - psychology of utilitarianism (Kahane et al. 2018; Everett & Kahane 2020)
I was thinking of covering all of this research in a general entry on the psychology of effective altruism, but we can also have separate articles for each.
I forgot that there was already an EA Psychology tag, so I’ve now just renamed that, added some content, and copied this comment of Pablo’s on that Discussion page.
(It could still make sense for someone to also create entries on those other topics and/or on moral psychology—I just haven’t done so yet.)
Apparently there’s a new review article by Caviola, Schubert, and Greene called “The Psychology of (In)Effective Altruism”, which pushes in favour of roughly that as the name.
I also think that, as you suggest, that can indeed neatly cover “psychology of effective giving” (i.e., that seems a subset of “psychology of effective altruism”), and maybe “psychology of utilitarianism”.
But I’m less sure that that neatly covers the other things you list. I.e., the psychology of speciesism and existential risk are relevant to things other than how effective people will be in their altruism. But we can just decide later whether to also have separate entries for those, and if so I do think they should definitely be listed in the Related entries section from the “main entry” on this bundle of topics (and vice versa).
So I think I currently favour:
Haven’t an entry called psychology of (in)effective altruism
With psychology of effective altruism as a second-to-top pick
Probably not currently having a separate entry for psychology of (in)effective giving
But if people think there’s enough distinctive stuff to warrant an entry/tag for that, I’m definitely open to it
Maybe having separate entries for the other things you mention
Psychology of (in)effective altruism is adequate for a paper, where authors can use humor, puns, and other informal devices, but inappropriate for an encyclopedia, which should keep a formal tone.
(To elaborate: by calling the field of study e.g. the ‘psychology of effective giving’ one is not confining attention only to the psychology of those who give particularly effectively: ‘effective giving’ is used to designate a dimension of variation, and the field studies the underlying psychology responsible for causing people to give with varying degrees of effectiveness, ranging from very effectively to very ineffectively. By analogy, the psychology of eating is meant to also study the psychology of people who do not eat, or who eat little. A paper about anorexia may be called “The psychology of (non-)eating”, but that’s just an informal way of drawing attention to its focus; it’s not meant to describe a field of study called “The psychology of (non-)eating”, and that’s not an appropriate title for an encyclopedia article on such a topic.)
Yeah, the ultra-pedantic+playful parenthetical is a very academic thing. “Psychology of effective altruism” seems to cover giving/x-risk/speciesism/career choice—i.e. it covers everything we want.
Given the fact you both say this and the upvotes on those comments, I think we should probably indeed go with “psychology of effective giving” rather than “psychology of (in)effective giving”.[1]
I still don’t think that actually totally covers psychology of speciesism, since speciesism is not just relevant in relation to altruism. Likewise, I wouldn’t say the psychology of racism or of sexism are covered by the area “psychology of effective altruism”. But I do think the entry on psychology of effective altruism should discuss speciesism and so on, and that if we later have an entry for psychology of speciesism they should link to each other.
[1] But FWIW:
I don’t naturally interpret the “(in)” device as something like humour, a pun, or an informal device
I think “psychology of effective altruism” and “psychology of ineffective altruism” do call to mind to distinct focuses, even if I’d expect each thing to either cover (with less emphasis) or “talk to” work on the other thing
Somewhat analogously, areas of psychology that focus on what makes for an especially good life (e.g., humanist psychology) are meaningfully distinct from those that focus on “dysfunction” (e.g., psychopathology), and I believe new terms were coined primarily to highlight that distinction
But I don’t think this matters much, and I’m totally happy for “psychology of effective giving” to be used instead.
(Oh, just popping a thought here before I go to sleep: “moral psychology” is a relevant nearby thing. Possibly it’d be better to have that entry than “psychology of effective altruism”? Or to have both?)
Yeah, I think Psychology of effective giving is probably the best name. Stefan, Lucius and others have published a bunch of stuff on this, which would be good to cover in the article.
This is one of many emerging areas of research at the intersection of psychology and effective altruism:
- psychology of effective giving (Caviola et al. 2014; Caviola, Schubert & Nemirow 2020; Burum, Nowak & Hoffman 2020)
- psychology of existential risk (Shubert, Caviola & Faber 2019)
- psychology of speciesism (Caviola 2019; Caviola, Everett & Faber 2019; Caviola & Capraro 2020)
- psychology of utilitarianism (Kahane et al. 2018; Everett & Kahane 2020)
I was thinking of covering all of this research in a general entry on the psychology of effective altruism, but we can also have separate articles for each.
I forgot that there was already an EA Psychology tag, so I’ve now just renamed that, added some content, and copied this comment of Pablo’s on that Discussion page.
(It could still make sense for someone to also create entries on those other topics and/or on moral psychology—I just haven’t done so yet.)
Great, thanks.
Apparently there’s a new review article by Caviola, Schubert, and Greene called “The Psychology of (In)Effective Altruism”, which pushes in favour of roughly that as the name.
I also think that, as you suggest, that can indeed neatly cover “psychology of effective giving” (i.e., that seems a subset of “psychology of effective altruism”), and maybe “psychology of utilitarianism”.
But I’m less sure that that neatly covers the other things you list. I.e., the psychology of speciesism and existential risk are relevant to things other than how effective people will be in their altruism. But we can just decide later whether to also have separate entries for those, and if so I do think they should definitely be listed in the Related entries section from the “main entry” on this bundle of topics (and vice versa).
So I think I currently favour:
Haven’t an entry called psychology of (in)effective altruism
With psychology of effective altruism as a second-to-top pick
Probably not currently having a separate entry for psychology of (in)effective giving
But if people think there’s enough distinctive stuff to warrant an entry/tag for that, I’m definitely open to it
Maybe having separate entries for the other things you mention
Psychology of (in)effective altruism is adequate for a paper, where authors can use humor, puns, and other informal devices, but inappropriate for an encyclopedia, which should keep a formal tone.
(To elaborate: by calling the field of study e.g. the ‘psychology of effective giving’ one is not confining attention only to the psychology of those who give particularly effectively: ‘effective giving’ is used to designate a dimension of variation, and the field studies the underlying psychology responsible for causing people to give with varying degrees of effectiveness, ranging from very effectively to very ineffectively. By analogy, the psychology of eating is meant to also study the psychology of people who do not eat, or who eat little. A paper about anorexia may be called “The psychology of (non-)eating”, but that’s just an informal way of drawing attention to its focus; it’s not meant to describe a field of study called “The psychology of (non-)eating”, and that’s not an appropriate title for an encyclopedia article on such a topic.)
Yeah, the ultra-pedantic+playful parenthetical is a very academic thing. “Psychology of effective altruism” seems to cover giving/x-risk/speciesism/career choice—i.e. it covers everything we want.
Given the fact you both say this and the upvotes on those comments, I think we should probably indeed go with “psychology of effective giving” rather than “psychology of (in)effective giving”.[1]
I still don’t think that actually totally covers psychology of speciesism, since speciesism is not just relevant in relation to altruism. Likewise, I wouldn’t say the psychology of racism or of sexism are covered by the area “psychology of effective altruism”. But I do think the entry on psychology of effective altruism should discuss speciesism and so on, and that if we later have an entry for psychology of speciesism they should link to each other.
[1] But FWIW:
I don’t naturally interpret the “(in)” device as something like humour, a pun, or an informal device
I think “psychology of effective altruism” and “psychology of ineffective altruism” do call to mind to distinct focuses, even if I’d expect each thing to either cover (with less emphasis) or “talk to” work on the other thing
Somewhat analogously, areas of psychology that focus on what makes for an especially good life (e.g., humanist psychology) are meaningfully distinct from those that focus on “dysfunction” (e.g., psychopathology), and I believe new terms were coined primarily to highlight that distinction
But I don’t think this matters much, and I’m totally happy for “psychology of effective giving” to be used instead.
(Oh, just popping a thought here before I go to sleep: “moral psychology” is a relevant nearby thing. Possibly it’d be better to have that entry than “psychology of effective altruism”? Or to have both?)