Elsevier

Current Opinion in Psychology

Volume 44, April 2022, Pages 130-134
Current Opinion in Psychology

Review
Psychological barriers to effective altruism: An evolutionary perspective

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.09.008Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

People usually engage in (or at least profess to engage in) altruistic acts to benefit others. Yet, they routinely fail to maximize how much good is achieved with their donated money and time. An accumulating body of research has uncovered various psychological factors that can explain why people's altruism tends to be ineffective. These prior studies have mostly focused on proximate explanations (e.g. emotions, preferences, lay beliefs). Here, we adopt an evolutionary perspective and highlight how three fundamental motives — parochialism, status, and conformity — can explain many seemingly disparate failures to do good effectively. Our approach outlines ultimate explanations for ineffective altruism, and we illustrate how fundamental motives can be leveraged to promote more effective giving.

Keywords

Effective altruism
Evolutionary psychology
Parochialism
Conformity
Status

Cited by (0)

The authors would like to thank Lucius Caviola for his valuable feedback.