- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- 1 On the Economics of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Prevention
- 2 “A Crime Without a Name”
- 3 Datasets and Trends of Genocides, Mass Killings, and Other Civilian Atrocities
- 4 The Demography of Genocide
- 5 The Macroeconomic Toll of Genocide and the Sources of Economic Development
- 6 Genocide and Mass Killing Risk and Prevention
- 7 Incentives and Constraints for Mass Killings
- 8 Genocide
- 9 The Microeconomic Causes and Consequences of Genocides and Mass Atrocities
- 10 Development and the Risk of Mass Atrocities
- 11 Who Stays and Who Leaves During Mass Atrocities?
- 12 Media Persuasion, Ethnic Hatred, and Mass Violence
- 13 “For Being Aboriginal”
- 14 Identity and Incentives
- 15 The Economics of Genocide in Rwanda
- 16 Peace and the Killing
- 17 Gender and the Genocidal Economy
- 18 On the Logistics of Violence
- 19 Strategic Atrocities
- 20 From <i>Pax Narcótica</i> to <i>Guerra Pública</i>
- 21 Long-Term Economic Development in the Presence of an Episode of Mass Killing
- 22 Economic Foundations of Religious Killings and Genocide with Special Reference to Pakistan, 1978–2012
- 23 Understanding Civil War Violence through Military Intelligence
- 24 Economic Risk Factors and Predictive Modeling of Genocides and Other Mass Atrocities
- 25 Business in Genocide
- 26 Valuing Lives You Might Save
- 27 Genocides and Other Mass Atrocities
- 28 Local and National Democracy in Political Reconstruction
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Valuing Lives You Might Save
Valuing Lives You Might Save
Understanding Psychic Numbing in the Face of Genocide
- Chapter:
- (p.613) 26 Valuing Lives You Might Save
- Source:
- Economic Aspects of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Preventions
- Author(s):
Paul Slovic
Daniel Västfjäll
Robin Gregory
Kimberly G. Olson
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Why do governments fail to intervene to prevent genocide and other mass atrocities? We examine this question with reference to prospect theory, one of the foundations of behavioral economics. When people rely on their moral intuitions, they behave according to prospect theory’s value function, which implies that the importance of protecting an individual life diminishes as the number of lives at risk increases. In some cases, intuitive valuation of the collective threat may actually decrease as the number of lives at risk increases, which undoubtedly contributes to failures to respond aggressively to mass atrocities. Understanding this failing of moral intuition should help to inform the development of new institutional mechanisms concerned with atrocity prevention. Such new mechanisms are necessary to force us to pursue the hard measures needed to combat massive human rights abuses. Accordingly, we propose several policy recommendations and institutional designs to improve international decision-making in this arena.
Keywords: valuing lives, psychic numbing, compassion fade, prominence effect, genocide prevention
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- List of Contributors
- 1 On the Economics of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and Their Prevention
- 2 “A Crime Without a Name”
- 3 Datasets and Trends of Genocides, Mass Killings, and Other Civilian Atrocities
- 4 The Demography of Genocide
- 5 The Macroeconomic Toll of Genocide and the Sources of Economic Development
- 6 Genocide and Mass Killing Risk and Prevention
- 7 Incentives and Constraints for Mass Killings
- 8 Genocide
- 9 The Microeconomic Causes and Consequences of Genocides and Mass Atrocities
- 10 Development and the Risk of Mass Atrocities
- 11 Who Stays and Who Leaves During Mass Atrocities?
- 12 Media Persuasion, Ethnic Hatred, and Mass Violence
- 13 “For Being Aboriginal”
- 14 Identity and Incentives
- 15 The Economics of Genocide in Rwanda
- 16 Peace and the Killing
- 17 Gender and the Genocidal Economy
- 18 On the Logistics of Violence
- 19 Strategic Atrocities
- 20 From <i>Pax Narcótica</i> to <i>Guerra Pública</i>
- 21 Long-Term Economic Development in the Presence of an Episode of Mass Killing
- 22 Economic Foundations of Religious Killings and Genocide with Special Reference to Pakistan, 1978–2012
- 23 Understanding Civil War Violence through Military Intelligence
- 24 Economic Risk Factors and Predictive Modeling of Genocides and Other Mass Atrocities
- 25 Business in Genocide
- 26 Valuing Lives You Might Save
- 27 Genocides and Other Mass Atrocities
- 28 Local and National Democracy in Political Reconstruction
- Name Index
- Subject Index
