Emile comments on So you say you're an altruist... - Less Wrong

11 Post author: John_Maxwell_IV 12 March 2009 10:15PM

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Comment author: Emile 13 March 2009 11:58:18AM 0 points [-]

The gap between what people say they'd do and what they actually do is an interesting topic.

However, in the example chosen here (starving people in third-world countries), there are too many other reasons for which people wouldn't make the choice to save lives, many of which have been given by other commenters.

And I expect that if you mounted a hypothetical scenario that was closer to the actual starving people one, including the factors like the impact that aid might have on the local economy, the overpopulation problems, etc. - then I expect that much less people would say that they'd make great sacrifices to save lives (much less than would in the ten-hostages scenario, at least). There would probably still be a gap between what people say they'd do, and what they actually do, but it wouldn't be as dramatic.