Slang dictionary

effective altruism

[ ih-fek-tiv al-troo-iz-uhm ]

What does effective altruism mean?

Effective altruism is a social movement that encourages using logic and rational thinking to determine the best actions to take to benefit the world as much as possible.

Effective altruism, often shortened to EA, is a general term for a utilitarian approach to charity that focuses on using one’s money as efficiently as possible. People who practice effective altruism, usually referred to as effective altruists, often have personal strategies on how to best and most efficiently help people around them. For example, a person may plan a budget around the least amount of money they need to live and donate the rest to thoroughly researched charities.

Effective altruists often meticulously plan their charitable acts to ensure that their time and money is used as efficiently as possible. For example, effective altruism organizations often encourage people to donate to causes that affect a large number of people but typically receive comparatively low amounts of funding. For example, such an organization may suggest that people donate money to reputable groups operating in poorer countries rather than richer ones with the idea that this donation is more likely to help a higher number of people.

Effective altruism gained negative attention in 2022 due to the movement’s connection to entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, who was charged by US federal investigators with many financial crimes related to cryptocurrency. In interviews, Bankman-Fried claimed that his business practices were motivated by his belief in effective altruism. As a result, Bankman-Fried’s arrest brought a lot of negative attention to the effective altruism community.

Where does effective altruism come from?

dark aqua text "effective altruism" on light aqua background

The term effective altruism combines the words effective, meaning “effective in achieving the intended result,” and altruism, meaning “unselfish concern for others.” The term effective altruism refers to the idea of performing altruism as effectively as possible.

According to most sources, the idea of what would become effective altruism emerged during the later 2000s among a community of internet groups and charitable organizations. The effective altruism philosophy has been attributed to philosophers like Peter Singer and William MacAskill. According to MacAskill, the name effective altruism was chosen in 2011 through community voting by members of the growing movement.

Examples of effective altruism

Something that has always troubled me about effective altruism, and pure utilitarianism more broadly, is the lack of foundational moral ground rules. The ends justify the means, and human lives & complex values are reduced to numbers in a spreadsheet to be weighed.
@Ljin18, November 10, 2022
Effective altruism is a niche but influential theory of how to do good in the world. It’s buzzy in Silicon Valley, Oxford University and in certain corners of progressive data analysis, and its advocates have tens of billions of dollars at their disposal.
Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC News, December 3, 2022

Who uses effective altruism?

The term effective altruism refers to a social movement of performing charity as logically and efficiently as possible. Effective altruism has been criticized on social media for being elitist and for being used to justify unethical business practices.

Since the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, the term effective altruism has often been used negatively.

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Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of effective altruism like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of effective altruism that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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