Insensitivity to the Value of Human Life: A Study of Psychophysical Numbing
| dc.contributor.author | Fetherstonhaugh, David | |
| dc.contributor.author | Slovic, Paul | |
| dc.contributor.author | Johnson, Stephen | |
| dc.contributor.author | Friedrich, James | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2017-06-14T21:24:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2017-06-14T21:24:33Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1997 | |
| dc.description | 36 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | A fundamental principle of psychophysics is that people's ability to discriminate change in a physical stimulus diminishes as the magnitude of the stimulus increases. We find that people also exhibit diminished sensitivity in valuing lifesaving interventions against a background of increasing numbers of lives at risk. We call this "psychophysical numbing." Studies 1 and 2 found that an intervention saving a fixed number of lives was judged significantly more beneficial when fewer lives were at risk overall. Study 3 found that respondents wanted the minimum number of lives a medical treatment would have to save to merit a fixed amount of funding to be much greater for a disease with a larger number of potential victims than for a disease with a smaller number. The need to better understand the dynamics of psychophysical numbing and to determine its effects on decision making is discussed. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Fetherstonhaugh, D., Slovic, P., Johnson, S. M., & Friedrich, J. (1997). Insensitivity to the value of human life: A study of psychophysical numbing. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 14(3), 283-300. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/22431 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US | en_US |
| dc.subject | Genocide | en_US |
| dc.subject | Decision making | en_US |
| dc.subject | Life saving | en_US |
| dc.subject | Value of life | en_US |
| dc.subject | Benefit analysis | en_US |
| dc.subject | Psychophysical numbing | en_US |
| dc.title | Insensitivity to the Value of Human Life: A Study of Psychophysical Numbing | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |