Behavioural Economics Primer: Identifiable victim effect
Behavioural economics
This article is part of Warc's Behavioural Economics Primer.
We are more likely to respond and give support towards relieving the plight of a single, identifiable victim suffering under hardship than we are to large statistically defined groups of sufferers.
To the emotional part of our brain, a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. And this was the case when the photograph of Syrian refugee, 3 year old Aylan Kurdi, was beamed around the world in September. The harrowing photo showed...