The Dignity Constraint on Impact Metrics

Zera Yacob insisted that reason must be grounded in respect for human dignity—a principle that translates into a crucial constraint on effective altruism's metrics. This concept proposes that certain harms to dignity cannot be justified by marginal gains in aggregate utility. For instance, an intervention that saves lives but violates autonomy, cultural integrity, or participatory rights violates the dignity constraint. Yacob's framework resists the temptation to sacrifice individuals for statistical good. Applied to effective altruism, this means examining whether top-down solutions, paternalistic interventions, or extraction of data from vulnerable populations represent dignity violations that should disqualify otherwise high-impact projects. The dignity constraint asks: at what cost does this impact come, and to whom? It transforms effectiveness from a purely mathematical question into an ethical one that honors both outcomes and processes. This prevents effective altruism from becoming a vehicle for well-intentioned harm.