[Reader-list] Why People Don't Empathise/Donate Enough

[Chandni Parekh]

Excerpts from
http://psychologynews.posterous.com/why-people-dont-empathisedonate-enough -

If this is the case, Singer asked, why do large numbers of people hesitate
to write a check for $200 to a reputable charity that could save the life of
a child halfway around the world -- when there are millions of children who
need our help? Even when people are absolutely certain their money will not
be wasted and will be used to save a child's life, fewer people are willing
to write the check than to leap into the pond.
Our moral responsibilities feel different in these situations; one feels
immediate and visceral, the other distant and abstract. We feel personally
responsible for one child, whereas the other is one of millions who need
help. Our responsibility feels diffused when it comes to children in distant
places -- there are many people who could write that check. But distance and
diffusion of responsibility do not explain why we step forward in some
cases.

The reason human beings seem to care so little about mass suffering and
death is precisely because the suffering is happening on a mass scale. The
brain is simply not very good at grasping the implications of mass
suffering.

Journalists sometimes talk about compassion fatigue, the inability of people
to respond to suffering when the scale or length of the suffering exceeds
some astronomical number. But Slovic's work suggests that compassion fatigue
starts when the number of victims rises from one to two.

"The feelings of sadness dropped," Slovic said of the volunteers who were
told about the two children in need of help. He added, "You can't lock onto
two people in need of help as closely as you can lock onto one person. You
can't make an emotional connection as strongly to two as to one."