Impacts of Effective Altruism on Donor Behaviour: A Randomised Discrete Choice Experiment

Joel W. Berge, Lars Ivar Oppedal Berge, Winson Chiu and Ivar Kolstad

Journal of Development Studies, 2026, vol. 62, issue 5, 816-833

Abstract: In a pre-registered randomised online experiment, we test the effect of an effective altruism information treatment on donations to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Donor behaviour is measured through an incentivised discrete choice experimental approach. Despite power to pick up reasonably small effects, we find no effect of the treatment on donations to advocacy organisations, suggesting that the critique against effective altruism as ignoring institutional, systemic, and political issues meets with little empirical support. Some results even suggest that effective altruism may increase donor support for advocacy. In addition, effective altruism leads to increased support for organisations with an international focus, a result driven by respondents with less universalistic distributional preferences and less trust in NGOs. This suggests that effective altruism may reduce parochialism in donor behaviour.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2601583

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