I think another alternative explanation, which I believe, is simply that being EA means being different and those differences are important. Another way of putting that is concern around "watering-down", or "when everything is X, nothing is"; it's about preserving what's special and important (not *just* different). I think the status and costly-signal stuff makes sense as well.
Yep, this is a good take. I think there are a few theories that each explain a part of people's behaviour. People often do things for more than one reason, right?
I think another alternative explanation, which I believe, is simply that being EA means being different and those differences are important. Another way of putting that is concern around "watering-down", or "when everything is X, nothing is"; it's about preserving what's special and important (not *just* different). I think the status and costly-signal stuff makes sense as well.
Yep, this is a good take. I think there are a few theories that each explain a part of people's behaviour. People often do things for more than one reason, right?
This is a really interesting framing on barriers to entry in EA!! It reminded me a bit of this piece https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AJtbfPQL7gLqaNAcC/my-bargain-with-the-ea-machine
Social pressure is a funny thing! Coincidentally that was one of my favourite forum posts from the last year, although iirc it was a bit controversial