Why do we respond to one person needs help but not many
[Applause]
very few people who were alive in 1987
could forget the baby jessica saga
an 18 month old girl in midland texas
had fallen down at 22 foot well while
playing in an aunt’s house
the girl was stuck in the dark
subterranean crevice for nearly 59 hours
but the extensive media coverage made it
seem as if the ordeal had dragged on for
weeks
the drama had brought people together as
local oil diggers come rescue workers
reporters and neighbours to daily vigil
midland texas
as did millions of television viewers
all around the globe
there was a moment of anxiousness when
the rescuers learned that baby jessica’s
right foot was wedged between rocks
and there was universal delight when
baby jessica sang along
to the to the nursery rhyme humpty
dumpty followed on a wall
which was played on speaker and lowered
down into the role
and finally a tearful relief as baby
jessica
was finally pulled out of the wall
unharmed
in the aftermath of the rescue the
mcclure family received more than seven
hundred thousand dollars in donations
from the public for baby jessica
many many newspapers wrote gripping
articles about her as in numerous
magazines
there was even feel made about her of
course baby jessica and her family
suffer a great deal
but why why at the end of the day did
baby jessica garner more
media coverage and attention than the
1993 genocide in rwanda
in which 800 000 people many of which
children
same age as baby jessica were brutally
murdered in 100 days
and why why did our hearts go out to the
goal in texas much more readily
than to the victims of mass killings and
starvations
in darfur zimbabwe and the congo
to broaden the question a bit why do we
jump out of her chairs and write checks
to her one person
while we feel no great compulsion to act
in the face of other tragedies that are
in fact
more atrocious and involve many more
people
it’s a complex topic and one that has
daunted philosophers religious thinkers
social scientists and writers since time
joseph stalin had once said one man’s
death is
is a tragedy but a million people dying
is a statistic
and joseph stalin’s polar opposite
mother teresa
expressed the same sentiment she said if
i look at the mask
i will never act if i look at one i will
to put this into perspective imagine
that you’re in london
interviewing for your dream job and you
see that you have a few hours before
your interview
so you decide to take a walk by the
river in order to clear your head
as you’re walking by the river your hair
cry for help
and you see if you’re up the river a
little girl who appears to be drowning
you’re wearing a suit a brand new
designer seat they are specifically
picked out
to impress the interviewers and one that
set you back let’s say
a few thousands of pounds you’re a
confident swimmer
but if you want to save the goal you
have no time to remove anything and must
simply jump in
what do you do
sean saw that you wouldn’t think much
you would simply jump into the river and
save the goal
and by doing that damage your thousands
of pound suit and miss a job interview
the decision taken by you to jump into
the river is clearly
a reflection of the fact that you’re a
wonderful kind and amazing human being
but it’s also due to three other
psychological factors
the first of which proximity proximity
does not
simply refer to the physical nearness
between you and a victim of a tragedy
but also their emotional psychological
nearness for example
you’re close to your family to your to
your friends and
to people with whom you share
similarities to
thankfully and naturally most of the
tragedies in the world do not happen of
a close proximity to us
neither physically nor psychologically
the second factor vividness if i tell
you that i’ve cut myself
you don’t feel much my pain but if i
tell you that i’ve covered myself with
tear tears in my eyes
and tell me and tell you how my skin is
torn how much blood i’m losing by the
second
you’re able to empathize with me much
better and feel and feel an immediate
need to act
likewise when you see the little girl
four or five years old drowning in the
river
you feel a great compulsion to act
immediately
the third factor is what psychologists
like to call the drop in the bucket
effect
it refers to a person’s ability to
single-handedly and completely
solve the problem for a person like
in that scenario you can single-handedly
save that goal and save her from her
fate
now see how these factors would affect
your actions now imagine that same
little girl
was in a faraway land struck by tsunami
and he could
i say very moderate expense much less
than the thousands of pounds your suit
cost
you could save it from a fate
you are do you still jump in with your
pounds as you date into the river
or are you a bit more hesitant and what
about the millions of kids the same age
as her
that are risk of developing diseases
such as cholera every year
you could have very moderate expense
save them as well but are you more
hesitant
since you are you more hesitant since
you’re discouraged by inability to
completely solve the problem
or or do you still jump in and what
happened to motivation to help
thank you
you