Local preference

When it comes to giving, most people have a “local preference” — they value people around them higher than people further away.

You might value the life of someone in your neighborhood higher than someone outside of it, or someone in your city higher than someone from another city. In many ways, it’s human to do so, as it’s much easier to empathize with people when they share something in common with you.

But each person has their own degree of local preference, and we should seek to understand our own.

I propose we all know our own “local preference ratio” — the ratio at which you value lives in your community over the lives of people outside of it. If your local preference ratio is 10, you would rather save the life of 1 person in your community over 9 people overseas. If your local preference ratio is 1000, you would rather save the life of 1 person in your community over 999 people overseas.

Knowing your local preference ratio has major implications on the way you donate money.

• At a ratio of 1, you should be directing all of your donations to improving health in developing countries.

• At a ratio of 100, you should still be directing all of your donations to health in developing countries. It’s difficult to find ways to save someone’s life for less than $250,000 in the United States.

• At a ratio of around 1000, you should start looking at donation opportunities in your community.

To conclude with a thought exercise:

Imagine a world in which it costs $2500 to save someone's life in another country and $200,000 to pay for a US college tuition. What is the local preference ratio at which it makes sense to fund the college tuition?