Why We Care Less When More People Die

Photograph of Yemeni child by UNICEF, CC BY-NC 2.0.

Why do people go to great lengths to save one life, but become indifferent as the number of victims increases? Andrew Dorn gets to the heart of this mystery in a new article and accompanying video on psychic numbing. In his article, Dorn interviews psychologist and Arithmetic of Compassion contributor Paul Slovic on the limits of human compassion.

Dorn and Slovic discuss how psychic numbing reduces our emotional response to large numbers of people suffering, which is important because emotion is what motivates us to help people. Dorn also suggests a way to keep people engaged and motivated help: focus on the stories of individuals behind the statistics.

For more information on psychic numbing and related biases, and how they affect our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, read Dorn’s article and watch his video here.

Many children in Yemen like the one pictured above do not have enough food to eat. You can help them by donating to Save the Children.