Possibly EAs think about their donating more and are thus more likely to be able to look up the exact sums they’ve donated. While non-EAs might be more likely to just donate to some random thing that seems like a nice enough cause, and then forget the details.
If EAs are reporting actual numbers they’ve looked up and non-EAs are reporting their vague estimates of how much they might have given, I would expect non-EAs’ figures to be worse overestimates than EAs’.
As Caplan would say, social desirability bias seems like an issue here. One would not expect people to penalize themselves in such a self-report rather than nudge estimates upwards and make themselves look better in their own mind.
Possibly EAs think about their donating more and are thus more likely to be able to look up the exact sums they’ve donated. While non-EAs might be more likely to just donate to some random thing that seems like a nice enough cause, and then forget the details.
If EAs are reporting actual numbers they’ve looked up and non-EAs are reporting their vague estimates of how much they might have given, I would expect non-EAs’ figures to be worse overestimates than EAs’.
As Caplan would say, social desirability bias seems like an issue here. One would not expect people to penalize themselves in such a self-report rather than nudge estimates upwards and make themselves look better in their own mind.