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Choiceology · August 11, 2025 · 30m
Thinking Big, Feeling Small: Why Scale Breaks Our Moral Intuitions
Why people donate the same amount to save 2,000 birds as to save 200,000 birds. Explores scope insensitivity — our inability to scale emotional responses proportionally to the magnitude of a problem.
Highlights
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Scope insensitivity — emotional response doesn't scale with magnitude
Milkman: people's willingness to pay to solve a problem is nearly identical whether the problem affects 200 or 200,000 individuals. We generate one emotional image (a single suffering individual) and respond to that, regardless of scale.•
The identifiable victim effect — named individuals generate more compassion than statistics
Milkman: a single identified victim ('Baby Jessica in the well') generates more charitable donations and policy action than statistics about millions of unnamed victims. Our empathy system responds to individuals, not populations.