Steven Arthur Pinker (born 18 September 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and author.

Involvement with effective altruism

Pinker has described effective altruism as “one of the great new ideas of the 21st century”,^[1] and has written that “movements that aim to spread scientific sophistication such as […] effective altruism have a vast potential to enhance human welfare.”^[2] He has also collaborated with Harvard Effective Altruism and has expressed support for Giving What We Can.^[3]

Further reading

Timalsina, Tarun (2021) Effective altruism: An interview with Steven Pinker, Harvard Political Review.

External links

Steven Pinker. Official website.

1. ^

   MacAskill, William (2015) Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference, New York: Random House.

2. ^

   Pinker, Steven (2018) Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, New York: Viking, ch. 22.

3. ^

   Pinker, Steven (2016) The simplest way to make a huge difference to the world: Join Giving What We Can, Twitter, September 30.