Hey guys! So I haven't been around here in a while (I've been getting so involved at my university!), but I was thinking about something lately.

We often hear the three-pronged discussion of utilitarian lifestyles (money, influence, research) and we often distinguish ideas for making the most money. However, I've been thinking a lot about my personal goals lately, and feel I could do better in one of the last two categories.

SO! Obviously, we'd all like to be a famous philosophy utilitarian professor. But, I wanted to address other ideas (of course, subjective to personal preferences).

Here's mine: I'm considering making my own undergraduate major in Decision Theory and using economics and psychology to study specifically the decision to give philanthropically. This really interests me (decision theory is like reading peoples' minds) and I feel books/lectures/etc. on the subject geared towards people in high-income careers could spark more philanthropy than I could do myself.

What are your ideas?

sounds like a good idea, but instead of promoting philanthropy would you not rather promote people to give to whatever the most effective cause is, i mean if you promote philanthropy i'd imagine a lot of people will give to human charities, when there are more effective things they could do.

also are you really good at this stuff? otherwise it might be better to make money and fund other people/ads/whatever to promote it?

Right! I meant efficient giving, just thought that was implied. And yeah! Money can cause influence, but influence can cause money. I'm thinking my best route might be influence.

Thanks for the post! I agree that being a professional influencer can be a good strategy. Have you come across insights from decision theory that would help?

Any ideas in what capacity you would do your work? Would it be as an independent writer/blogger/speaker? If so, how would you make money to support yourself? Would you start or join a group like GiveWell/GWWC? You could consider working for a few years to save up, or working part-time. Or getting a job in donor consulting/philanthropic finance where you can interact with rich clients. (This would be less useful for speculative causes like wild-animal suffering, though, since few rich donors will be amenable to them.) There are lots more directions you could take depending on what you think suits you.

Hey! I have a question. So I'm interested in studying altruism for my undergraduate degree. I'm at an Ivy League institution, and have the option to do an independent major as long as I make it sound legitimate. Is there an academic field closely related to our mission? Like what academic discipline would charity evaluation go under?

If you want to learn to influence people, study marketing.
If you want to research charity effectiveness, it's economics you want to study.
If you want to earn money, go for finance.
If you want to study existential risks and the singularity, study maths and computer science.

LunarLeo wrote:Is there an academic field closely related to our mission?

The funny thing about utilitarianism is that it's insanely multidisciplinary. It's useful to have at least a basic knowledge of most natural and social sciences: neuroscience, psychology, decision theory, marketing, economics, finance (if you go that route), ecology, theoretical physics, cosmology, astrobiology, math, statistics, computer science, theory of computation, and (maybe) philosophy.

If you're focused on charity evaluation, you might narrow it down based on the field you're most interested in evaluating.

I would also reiterate my comment about studying statistics, math, and computer science as majors that will let you do basically anything. My own opinion is that college is more about signaling than about learning. A good fraction of what I know I didn't learn in a college course, and I think a lot of what I did learn in college was for the purpose of showing that I could think analytically rather than absorbing particular content. To re-work Mark Twain's quote, it's sometimes useful not to let education get in the way of school.

LunarLeo wrote:Hey! I have a question. So I'm interested in studying altruism for my undergraduate degree. I'm at an Ivy League institution, and have the option to do an independent major as long as I make it sound legitimate. Is there an academic field closely related to our mission? Like what academic discipline would charity evaluation go under?

Brown allows students to pick an independent major, but I would suggest that you pick a conventional degree program for the following reasons: If you want to pursue this course of action and develop it, you will probably need some research skills and a graduate degree. It will be easiest to do this if you have degree that will help you to gain admission to a graduate program in a conventional degree program. There are lots of ideas above, but I would add psychology to the list.

You can study decision theory as a psychologist, but I think you would also benefit by studying human behavior from the point of view of a psychologist. The decision-theory view is often used to describe decisions as if humans were computers, but if you study the many influences on human thoughts and behavior, you will find something different. I don't know of any quick way to describe this, but you might get the idea by Googling:

Schwartz norm-activation theory of altruistic behavior
Stern "value-belief-norm"
"reasoned action" Ajzen
"planned behavior" Fishbein

Also look for those in scholar.google.com if you are in your University library or otherwise connected to the student-only network. Another book that might seem to be off topic at first might give you a different perspective on why people do what they do and how they explain their actions. Find this old classic in your university library: Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger.

There is also a philosophical context for research on altruism. The new field of experimental philosophy combines philosophy and psychology, but without good research skills you could make a fool of yourself. As of right now, the most realistic way to approach this is from the psychology background due to the emphasis on empirical research methods.