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Speaking of Psychology · December 10, 2025 · 34m
The Psychology of Charitable Giving
Harvard moral psychologist Joshua Greene discusses why people give to charity — and why their giving patterns are often irrational. The identifiable victim effect, scope insensitivity, and how moral intuitions evolved for small groups but fail at scale.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Highlights
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Moral intuitions evolved for face-to-face groups and fail at global scale
Greene: our moral psychology evolved for small groups of 50-150 people where you personally knew everyone affected by your decisions. At global scale (millions of strangers), these intuitions produce systematically irrational moral behavior — we feel more for one identified victim than for millions of statistical ones.•
Effective altruism — using reason to override moral intuitions that produce suboptimal giving
Greene: if moral intuitions are unreliable guides to charitable giving (favoring visible, local, emotionally compelling causes over effective, global, evidence-based ones), then reason must supplement intuition. Effective altruism uses cost-effectiveness analysis to maximize the good done per dollar donated.Was this useful?