Intention Heuristic

Heard about the “intention heuristic”?  Let Arnold Kling explain what that means:

“The intention heuristic says that if the intentions of an act are selfless and well-meaning, then the act is good. If the intentions are self-interested, then it is not good.”

Put simply, the intent behind an action is more important than its consequence.

The intention heuristic probably explains why so many people who genuinely want a better life for everyone dislike capitalism. Because the intention of capitalism isn’t to make everyone better off. That is just a consequence.

The benefits of Internet connectivity are enormous and obvious to people like us. Yet, many criticize Facebook for its attempt to bring free access to a small subset of that very same Internet to the remote and/or poor for free. Why? Because the ultimate motives of Facebook is to make money from the next billion that comes on the Net. In other words, the intention heuristic. If Facebook aims to make money, it’s bad regardless of the good it does.

I’ll cite another example. Evan Thornley, cofounder of LookSmart, explained why he likes to hire women:

“Call me opportunistic…(Women are) still often relatively cheap compared to what we would’ve had to pay someone less good of a different gender.”

As you might suspect, his reasons kicked off a storm. Alex Tabarrok points out that intention heuristic is again why Thornley was the target of criticism:

“It’s Thornley who is broadcasting the fact of equality to the world and encouraging others to do likewise. Most importantly, the consequence of Thornley’s actions are to increase the demand for women executives thereby increasing their wages.”

In the awesome serial Sherlock, Holmes once tells Moriarty:

“Oh, I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them.”

Maybe the folks who dislike capitalism should tell themselves that while capitalism may not be an angel, it sure is an angel in its consequences. Most of the time, anyway.