Human Compassion Limited, Study Finds: as numbers increase, we level off

[Guest guest]

http://news./s/livescience/20070216/sc_livescience/humancompassionsurpr\

isinglylimitedstudyfinds

 

Human Compassion Surprisingly Limited, Study Finds

Sara Goudarzi

LiveScience Staff Writer

LiveScience.comFri Feb 16, 9:41 AM ET

 

SAN FRANCISCO-While a person's accidental death reported on the

evening news can bring viewers to tears, mass killings reported as

statistics fail to tickle human emotions, a new study finds.

 

The Internet and other modern communications bring atrocities such as

killings in Darfur, Sudan into homes and office cubicles. But

knowledge of these events fails to motivate most to take action, said

Paul Slovic, a University of Oregon researcher.

 

People typically react very strongly to one death but their emotions

fade as the number of victims increase, Slovic reported here

yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science.

 

" We go all out to save a single identified victim, be it a person or

an animal, but as the numbers increase, we level off, " Slovic said.

" We don't feel any different to say 88 people dying than we do to 87.

This is a disturbing model, because it means that lives are not

equal, and that as problems become bigger we become insensitive to

the prospect of additional deaths. "

 

Human insensitivity to large-scale human suffering has been observed

in the past century with genocides in Armenia, the Ukraine, Nazi

Germany and Rwanda, among others.

 

" We have to understand what it is in our makeup-psychologically,

socially, politically and institutionally-that has allowed genocide

to go unabated for a century, " Slovic said. " If we don't answer that

question and use the answer to change things, we will see another

century of horrible atrocities around the world. "

 

Slovic previously studied this phenomenon by presenting photographs

to a group of subjects. In the first photograph eight children needed

$300,000 to receive medical attention in order to save their lives.

In the next photograph, one child needed $300,000 for medical bills.

 

Most subjects were willing to donate to the one and not the group of children.

 

In his latest research, Slovic and colleagues showed three photos to

participants: a starving African girl, a starving African boy and a

photo of both of them together.

 

Participants felt equivalent amounts of sympathy for each child when

viewed separately, but compassion levels declined when the children

were viewed together.

 

" The studies ... suggest a disturbing psychological tendency, " Slovic

said. " Our capacity to feel is limited. Even at two, people start to

lose it. "

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish

language subsections.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hello,

After reading the article I wonder if it also applies to human compassion

towards animals? Personally, I do not think my feelings level off at seeing a

larger number of suffering animals compared to one. Am I alone in this respect?

 

Kim Bartlett <anpeople wrote: aapn

Kim Bartlett <anpeople

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 15:44:29 -0800

Human Compassion Limited, Study Finds: as numbers increase, we

level off

 

http://news./s/livescience/20070216/sc_livescience/humancompassionsurpr\

isinglylimitedstudyfinds

 

Human Compassion Surprisingly Limited, Study Finds

Sara Goudarzi

LiveScience Staff Writer

LiveScience.comFri Feb 16, 9:41 AM ET

 

SAN FRANCISCO-While a person's accidental death reported on the

evening news can bring viewers to tears, mass killings reported as

statistics fail to tickle human emotions, a new study finds.

 

The Internet and other modern communications bring atrocities such as

killings in Darfur, Sudan into homes and office cubicles. But

knowledge of these events fails to motivate most to take action, said

Paul Slovic, a University of Oregon researcher.

 

People typically react very strongly to one death but their emotions

fade as the number of victims increase, Slovic reported here

yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the

Advancement of Science.

 

" We go all out to save a single identified victim, be it a person or

an animal, but as the numbers increase, we level off, " Slovic said.

" We don't feel any different to say 88 people dying than we do to 87.

This is a disturbing model, because it means that lives are not

equal, and that as problems become bigger we become insensitive to

the prospect of additional deaths. "

 

Human insensitivity to large-scale human suffering has been observed

in the past century with genocides in Armenia, the Ukraine, Nazi

Germany and Rwanda, among others.

 

" We have to understand what it is in our makeup-psychologically,

socially, politically and institutionally-that has allowed genocide

to go unabated for a century, " Slovic said. " If we don't answer that

question and use the answer to change things, we will see another

century of horrible atrocities around the world. "

 

Slovic previously studied this phenomenon by presenting photographs

to a group of subjects. In the first photograph eight children needed

$300,000 to receive medical attention in order to save their lives.

In the next photograph, one child needed $300,000 for medical bills.

 

Most subjects were willing to donate to the one and not the group of children.

 

In his latest research, Slovic and colleagues showed three photos to

participants: a starving African girl, a starving African boy and a

photo of both of them together.

 

Participants felt equivalent amounts of sympathy for each child when

viewed separately, but compassion levels declined when the children

were viewed together.

 

" The studies ... suggest a disturbing psychological tendency, " Slovic

said. " Our capacity to feel is limited. Even at two, people start to

lose it. "

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish

language subsections.