Identifiable Victim Effect
An Identifiable Victim Effect is a psychological effect where we are willing to expend greater resources to save the lives of identified victims than to save equal numbers of unidentified or statistical victims.
References
2022
- (Wikipedia, 2022) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifiable_victim_effect Retrieved:2022-6-3.
- The "identifiable victim effect" refers to the tendency of individuals to offer greater aid when a specific, identifiable person ("victim") is observed under hardship, as compared to a large, vaguely defined group with the same need.[1] The effect is also observed when subjects administer punishment rather than reward. Research has shown that individuals can be more likely to mete out punishment, even at their own expense, when they are punishing specific, identifiable individuals ("perpetrators").[2]
Concrete images and representations are often more powerful sources of persuasion than are abstract statistics.[3] For example, Ryan White contracted HIV at age 13 and had the disease until his death six years later. Following his death, the US congress passed the Ryan White Care Act, which funded the largest set of services for people living the AIDS in the country.[4] HIV stigma is, of course, still a challenge in this country.
The effect is epitomized by the phrase (commonly, but most likely incorrectly, attributed to Joseph Stalin) "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
- The "identifiable victim effect" refers to the tendency of individuals to offer greater aid when a specific, identifiable person ("victim") is observed under hardship, as compared to a large, vaguely defined group with the same need.[1] The effect is also observed when subjects administer punishment rather than reward. Research has shown that individuals can be more likely to mete out punishment, even at their own expense, when they are punishing specific, identifiable individuals ("perpetrators").[2]
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedJenni & Loewenstein, 1997 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedSmall & Loewenstein, 2005 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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1997
- (Jenni & Loewenstein, 1997) ⇒ Karen Jenni, and George Loewenstein. (1997). “Explaining the Identifiable Victim Effect.” Journal of Risk and uncertainty 14, no. 3
- ABSTRACT: It is widely believed that people are willing to expend greater resources to save the lives of identified victims than to save equal numbers of unidentified or statistical victims. There are many possible causes of this disparity which have not been enumerated previously or tested empirically. We discuss four possible causes of the identifiable victim effect and present the results of two studies which indicate that the most important cause of the disparity in treatment of identifiable and statistical lives is that, for identifiable victims, a high proportion of those at risk can be saved.