This Philosophical Argument Convinced People to Give More to Charity

Last fall Fiery Cushman, the director of the Moral Psychology Research Lab at Harvard, and I announced a contest: We would award $1,000 to the author of an argument that effectively convinces research participants to donate a surprise bonus payment to charity at rates statistically higher than a control group. ($500 would go to the author and $500 to the author’s choice of charity.) After some delay due to the pandemic, we announced our winner in June. The winning submission was written by one of the most famous philosophers in the world, Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation and The Most Good You Can Do, in collaboration with Brooklyn College philosopher Matthew Lindauer.

With philosophers Chris McVey and Josh May, at U.C. Riverside and the University of Alabama, respectively, I had several times tried and failed to write arguments that would be effective in