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A good choice for a good cause
Should we be guided by our head or by our heart? Or is this the wrong question?
If you want to share some of your wealth with others, there are literally thousands of charities that are happy to take your money and distribute it to the needy on your behalf. But which charity is best? Even if you have a preference for a particular kind of beneficiary you want to support, there are often still many organizations that serve your particular preferred target. How to choose between them?
If you were an effective altruist, you would — as the name suggests — look at the effectiveness of the charities’ work. The extent to which they realize their mission (and indirectly also yours) is then the primary criterion by which you would evaluate the possibilities and make your final selection. However, that is not always easy to establish. And isn’t charity really something that you should do with your heart, rather than based on cold, impersonal calculation?
Harvard psychologist Lucius Caviola and colleagues have reviewed the reasons why people select particular causes, and why they are often not effective altruists. They identify two main categories of reasons: motivational (emotion focused) and epistemic (knowledge focused).
