Putting “Rational Compassion” into Practice: An Ethnography of Effective Altruism

This doctoral dissertation research will investigate how rationality and compassion are co-constructed in the Effective Altruism movement, a social movement that aims to transform philanthropy through the conversion of individual donors to its principles and practices. In the US, the NL, and beyond, effective altruists are working to popularize their techno-utopian vision, and with the recently enhanced influence of proponents like Elon Musk, the ideology that shapes this movement and the resources it stands to mobilize could play an outsized role in policy and practice. Drawing on the anthropology of philanthropy, morality, and conversion, this research asks if (and if so how) self-identified effective altruists reproduce global inequality at a structural level through their ethical practice of “rational compassion” at an interpersonal level.