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hyporational comments on Open Thread, November 15-22, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: drethelin 16 November 2013 01:36AM

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Comment author: hyporational 18 November 2013 08:34:16AM *  3 points [-]

What would the decreasing marginal value be in the charity example? If we're just talking fuzzies, isn't that scope insensitivity?

Comment author: ThrustVectoring 20 November 2013 07:46:12PM 2 points [-]

The decreasing marginal value is the amount of fuzzies your donation lets you feel.

If you get 10 utilons from doing something that saves one person's life, perhaps you get only 12 from doing something that saves two people's lives.

Decreasing marginal satisfaction from doing more to help a problem is the cause of scope insensitivity - people feel bad knowing that they aren't helping, and feel good knowing that they are.