effective altruist

Noun

effective altruist (plural effective altruists)

1. 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").
   • 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...2020 September 23, Zachary Pincus-Roth, “The Rise of the Rational Do-Gooders”, in The Washington Post
   • It has also become an influential subculture in the Bay Area, where devotees commonly refer to themselves as effective altruists in the same way they might describe themselves as leftists or psychonauts.2022 November 17, Annie Lowrey, “Effective Altruism Committed the Sin It Was Supposed to Correct”, in The Atlantic