Paul Slovic on The Decision Education Podcast

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Arithmetic of Compassion contributor professor Paul Slovic was recently interviewed by Dr. Joe Sweeney on The Decision Education Podcast, and they discussed the 3 pillars of the Arithmetic of Compassion:

  • Psychic Numbing: our insensitivity to large numbers of victims

  • Pseudoinefficacy: when we are made aware of the large numbers of people we cannot help, we become demotivated to help those we can

  • The Prominence Effect: when faced with a decision with difficult tradeoffs, we default to choosing the option that is better in the most defensible attribute, even if it conflicts with our values and results in outcomes we don’t prefer

Their conversation also touched on how psychic numbing has impacted our perspective during the COVID-19 pandemic and what children should learn in school about decision making.

You can listen to the podcast here or on various podcast platforms.

Pseudoinefficacy, Prominence, Psychic NumbingArithmetic of Compassion Team