Identifiable Victim Effect

We feel greater empathy, and an urge to help, in situations where tragedies are about a specific, identifiable individual, compared to situations where the victims are a larger, vaguer group of people.

#behavior

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  2. Weinstein, M. C., Shepard, D. S., & Pliskin, J. S. (1980). The economic value of changing mortality probabilities: A decision-theoretic approach. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 94(2), 373-396. https://doi.org/10.2307/1884546
  3. CBS News. (2012, September 11). Bullied bus monitor receives $700k check. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bullied-bus-monitor-receives-700k-check/
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  5. 2018 NCI budget fact book - Research funding. (2018, December 20). National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/budget/fact-book/data/research-funding
  6. Cameron, C. D., & Payne, B. K. (2011). Escaping affect: How motivated emotion regulation creates insensitivity to mass suffering. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021643
  7. Chung, E. (2016, June 24). The identifiable victim effect: When one is more than many. Classy. https://www.classy.org/blog/the-identifiable-victim-effect-when-one-is-more-than-many/
  8. Lyons, L. (1947, January 30). Loose-Leaf Notebook. The Washington Post, p. 9.
  9. Colman, A. M. (2006). Thomas C. Schelling’s psychological decision theory: Introduction to a special issue. Journal of Economic Psychology, 27(5), 603-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2006.06.002
  10. Västfjäll, D., Slovic, P., Mayorga, M., & Peters, E. (2014). Compassion fade: Affect and charity are greatest for a single child in need. PLoS ONE, 9(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100115