GiveWell is being honest in a way that other organizations aren’t. At least in the abstract, doesn’t it seem like a great use of money (relative to the things that people usually spend money on) to spend several thousand dollars to save the life of a full grown adult with years of productivity ahead of him or her and with family who depend on him or her?
You may be anchoring based on the total amount of money needed to save everybody who needs to be saved in the developing world or something like that, and consequently forgetting that there are real people who are affected by donations.
At this point in my life, giving $1,000 would require a significant life change.
Are you sure? You may be right, but you may also be falling into a trap of the type that I described in bullet point (1) of my post. Remember, you wouldn’t be sacrificing a random $1,000 worth of your stuff, you would be giving up the $1,000 of stuff that you deem to be least important to you.
You may be anchoring based on the total amount of money needed to save everybody who needs to be saved in the developing world or something like that, and consequently forgetting that there are real people who are affected by donations.
You seem mighty quick to accuse me of bias. A thousand dollars is a lot higher than I imagined the number to be. Surely, you can be charitable enough for me to express that simple fact without declaring me an anchor-er.
I feel obliged to point out that you are an anchor-er, insomuch as that you are human. You may not be falling prey to that particular bias in this particular instance, but the bias is still present in the topology of your brain.
I guess I was reacting to your comparison of the “significant life change” experienced by the recipient and family/friends of a StopTB treatment and the “significant life change” that you would experience in losing $1000. The two are not comparable and the fact that you used the same phrase to describe them suggested to me that you were irrationally heavily minimizing the impact of a donation to StopTB on the recipients of the treatment.
I’m not saying that the fact that the two things are incomparable means that you ought to give. Again, see my post on altruism and sacrifice. I only ask that you make an honest assessment of what’s being lost when you decline to donate.
Meh. I was unpleasantly surprised by how un-cost-effective GiveWell’s programs are. According to their cost-effectiveness page:
I find that a dishearteningly large number. At this point in my life, giving $1,000 would require a significant life change.
Also, I think the Peter Singer v. Tyler Cowen video should be mentioned. Their interesting discussion mentions this book.
GiveWell is being honest in a way that other organizations aren’t. At least in the abstract, doesn’t it seem like a great use of money (relative to the things that people usually spend money on) to spend several thousand dollars to save the life of a full grown adult with years of productivity ahead of him or her and with family who depend on him or her?
You may be anchoring based on the total amount of money needed to save everybody who needs to be saved in the developing world or something like that, and consequently forgetting that there are real people who are affected by donations.
See Paul Slovic’s article “If I look at the mass, I will never act” http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron/journal/jdm7303a.pdf
See also the “aid is a drop in the bucket” stuff here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onsIdBanynY
Are you sure? You may be right, but you may also be falling into a trap of the type that I described in bullet point (1) of my post. Remember, you wouldn’t be sacrificing a random $1,000 worth of your stuff, you would be giving up the $1,000 of stuff that you deem to be least important to you.
You seem mighty quick to accuse me of bias. A thousand dollars is a lot higher than I imagined the number to be. Surely, you can be charitable enough for me to express that simple fact without declaring me an anchor-er.
I feel obliged to point out that you are an anchor-er, insomuch as that you are human. You may not be falling prey to that particular bias in this particular instance, but the bias is still present in the topology of your brain.
Point well taken.
I guess I was reacting to your comparison of the “significant life change” experienced by the recipient and family/friends of a StopTB treatment and the “significant life change” that you would experience in losing $1000. The two are not comparable and the fact that you used the same phrase to describe them suggested to me that you were irrationally heavily minimizing the impact of a donation to StopTB on the recipients of the treatment.
I’m not saying that the fact that the two things are incomparable means that you ought to give. Again, see my post on altruism and sacrifice. I only ask that you make an honest assessment of what’s being lost when you decline to donate.