Cognitive biases and animal welfare (with Leah Edgerton)
About this episode
Read the full transcript here.
What are some of the tensions between short-term and long-term thinking about how best to reduce animal suffering? Why spend time and energy working on animal welfare when human welfare hasn't even been secured? Why do so many animal rights activists and organizations have such negative reputations and elicit such strongly negative emotional reactions from the population at large when they're just trying to reduce suffering? How does animal rights activism from an effective altruism perspective intersect with the more traditional forms of animal rights activism and social justice activism? Humans tend to be more capable of empathizing (for example) with a cow than with a fish, and more with a dog than with a cow; so how can animal rights activists motivate people in a way that works with or around human cognitive and emotional biases? What are some tools for dealing with chronic pain?
Leah has been involved in the effective altruism community for a decade and in animal advocacy her whole life. She has 7 years of professional experience in farmed animal advocacy, primarily focused on movement growth and interfacing with funders. Most recently, she worked at Animal Charity Evaluators on the Communications team and then as Executive Director. Her previous work experience includes performing in the Zurich Opera, managing a small business, and founding and leading ProVeg International's China Program. She currently works as a freelance philanthropic advisor to high-net-worth individuals entering the farmed animal space. You can email Leah at [email protected] or find out more about her on her LinkedIn profile.
Further reading
- A tool to help you figure out what animal products are most harmful (as well as some caveats about the methods of the tool)
Staff
- Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
- Josh Castle — Producer
- Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
- Uri Bram — Factotum
- Janaisa Baril — Transcriptionist
Music
Affiliates
Get every episode summarized
Each time Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
Can We End Factory Farming Without Giving Up Meat? (with Bruce Friedrich)
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
Our relationship to chatbots (with Claire Boine)
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
The good advice you least want (with Cate Hall)
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg
Why housing costs so much and what can be done about it (with Alex Armlovich)
Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg