ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5911-4772

Date of Award

Fall 2024

Language

English

Embargo Period

8-23-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Social/Personality Psychology

First Advisor

Brendan O'Connor

Committee Members

Brendan O'Connor, Mark Muraven, Jason D'Cruz

Keywords

Effective Altruism, Extraordinary Altruism, Reasoning, Empathy, Morality, Attitudes

Subject Categories

Applied Ethics | Behavioral Economics | Cognitive Psychology | Ethics and Political Philosophy | Personality and Social Contexts | Social Psychology | Theory and Philosophy

Abstract

Psychologists and philosophers have often championed deliberative reasoning over empathy as a better approach to overcoming parochial biases and guiding altruistic equity and effectiveness. Advocates of the effective altruism (EA) philosophy even advise philanthropists to downregulate empathic responses to maximize the impact of their donations. However, recent research reveals that extraordinary altruists (XAs), such as those who donate organs to strangers, are driven primarily by empathy. This dissertation explores whether empathy necessarily impedes altruistic equity (impartial regard for others’ welfare) and effectiveness (prioritizing impact), revealing a more nuanced reality that challenges this perspective. Across two phases of research involving three subject groups (NTotal = 360; NEA = 119, NXA = 65, Ncontrol = 174), I investigate the cognitive, affective, moral, and attitudinal underpinnings of equitable and effective altruistic behavior among self-identifying effective altruists (EAs), extraordinary altruists (XAs), and ordinary adults (controls). The findings suggest that empathy is elevated among XAs, while reasoning is elevated among EAs. However, both capacities predict the prioritization of equity and effectiveness across populations, at times only showing their maximal prosocial benefits when both are high. Furthermore, expansive moral concern, utilitarian beliefs in impartial beneficence, compassionate love, identification with all of humanity, and intriguingly, group loyalty, also play critical roles. Bringing EAs and XAs into the lab for the first time in a single, unified investigation, the current insights suggest ongoing debates over the altruistic utility of reasoning versus empathy may be based on a false dichotomy. Instead, the data suggest that there is no single recipe for exceptional altruism, and that both reasoning and empathy are critical ingredients that work best together.

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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