effective altruist

effective altruist (plural effective altruists)

1. (ethics, philosophy) A proponent of effective altruism ("a philosophy and social movement that advocates the use of evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others").
   • 2020 September 23, Zachary Pincus-Roth, “The Rise of the Rational Do-Gooders”, in The Washington Post‎:

     At the very least, effective altruists believe that our existing animal charity is misplaced: The vast majority of it goes to shelters, yet according to the EA organization Animal Charity Evaluators, in 2019, for every one animal euthanized in a shelter in the United States, approximately 6,428 farmed land animals were slaughtered for meat.

   • 2022 December 9, Jennifer Szalai, “Effective Altruism Warned of Risks. Did It Also Incentivize Them?”, in The New York Times‎:

     Effective altruists talk about both “neartermism” and “longtermism.” […] The movement itself is still a big tent; there are effective altruists who remain dedicated to targeted interventions with proven results, including vaccination campaigns (and, of course, antimalarial bed nets).