Effective Altruism: Why good intention is not enough

If you live in a city of developing country as I do, chance is, you have encountered street children. Amidst the busy traffic light, they walk around with a guitar, tissue, or anything else they are trying to sell. Their eyes are empty and full of sadness. They go from vehicle to vehicle asking people to buy from them or just give them money.

One afternoon, I was in a car and then a kid knocked on the side window. He didn’t try to sing or sell me anything. He was just holding a plastic cup as a bowl for money. I felt pity for the kid and so I gave them small changes that I had at the time. The kid quickly said thank you and he whizzed away. But, rather than approaching another car, he approached a guy, probably in his mid-thirties. He didn’t seem particularly fond of the kid. He just took the money and told the kid to get some more money. Judging from his appearance, I would guess he was some kind of street mafia. That awful sight made me upset and question what I did before. If I want to improve the welfare of that kid, maybe giving him money directly is not the best thing to do. But then, what would be the most effective way to achieve it?

Effective altruism is an emerging social movement that asks a more general version of this dilemma. In other words, the people committed to this movement are trying to find the most effective way to deliver the limited resources that we have (time, skills, money) to benefit others as much as possible. Instead of relying on emotion and what makes us feel good about ourselves, an effective altruist would look at the evidence and use reason to choose the most effective action to achieve a given end.

Why is effective altruism important? It rises from a truth-pill that is hard to swallow for most of us: many attempts to make a positive difference fail. For example, consider the goal of reducing and preventing the spread of HIV. A lot of people might think that since HIV often spreads from prostitution, closing prostitution place and criminalizing both the customers and the sex workers is a good idea. However, many researchers have suggested that this policy does not reduce the spread of HIV, even in some cases, increase exposure risks and unreported violence.

Furthermore, many of the global problems we face today suffer from a lack of effectivity instead of a lack of resources. The most blatant example is the problem of extreme hunger. According to the UN, 1 in 9 people in the world are still undernourished. Meanwhile, 1/3 of the food we produce goes to waste. The question is not whether we have sufficient food to feed these people. Undeniably, we do. The question is how to make sure the food goes to their plate instead of ending up in landfills.

The first step to becoming an effective altruist is to choose which global problems to prioritize based on the expected impact. Robert Wiblin from 80,000 hours website — a website built to guide you choosing an impactful career — offers the following framework to prioritize global problems.

• Scale: it affects many lives, by a great amount
• Neglectedness: few other people are working on the problem
• Solvability: the problem is tractable and bringing additional resources will do a great deal to address it
• Personal fit: a possession of specific skills that is highly needed to solve the problem.

The last factor is only applicable if you would like to directly involved in the effort to solve global problems. If you just want to find a charity that can use your money effectively, you might consider only the first three factors.

After choosing a problem, the next thing to do is to find the most effective way to solve it. There is no clear-cut answer to this question since the problems are usually complex and interrelated. They also depend a lot on culture and geography. If you are convinced to become an effective altruist, this is the research that we all must do.

Effective altruism is a new movement, and just like every social movement, it is not free of criticism. For instance, some people think that relying on reason alone in acting altruistically diminishes the importance of empathy. Other people say that suggesting people to use their reason first before donating would discourage people from donating in the first place. There has been a fierce debate about the ‘goodness’ of effective altruism in the recent years. However, I believe that effective altruism is a useful and practical framework if you think our limited resources do not allow us to solve every problem at once.

Featured image source: http://joeymachine.com/doing-good/