MichaelHoward comments on Money: The Unit of Caring - Less Wrong

95 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 31 March 2009 12:35PM

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Comment author: taw 31 March 2009 03:46:25PM 18 points [-]

You make a huge unspoken assumptions that people actually care about charities getting their stated work done. There's very little evidence for it, and plenty of evidence against it. As far as we know people donate time and money to charities to signal their moral character to others, and to receive pleasant feelings of contributing in return.

So you'd be right, if your basic assumption wasn't so completely mistaken. To be honest this assumption is extremely common, so it's not just your mistake, but it doesn't make it any less false.

Comment author: MichaelHoward 31 March 2009 08:56:52PM 11 points [-]

I think most of these people (whose actions achieve more in signaling and warm fuzzy feelings than getting the stated work done) do genuinely care, they're just doing it wrong.

Comment author: Kevin 12 June 2010 12:29:07AM 1 point [-]

Agreed. The signalling and warm fuzzy feelings provide false feedback about the actual validity of individual volunteering.