The Peril of One vs. The Peril of Many

"If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one, I will."

Mother Theresa

Do you ever wonder why people react to the peril of one individual, but often, won't respond to a condition that affects many:



500,000 in the Tri-County area living in poverty - 30% of those individuals are children.



Graduation rates in any city in America.



Genocides in Darfur and Rwanda.





Recent research by Paul Slovic, President of Decision Research and professor at the University of Oregon, sheds light on the issue.

"Most people are caring and will exert great effort to rescue individual victims whose needy plight comes to their attention. These same good people, however, often become numbly indifferent to the plight of individuals who are "one of many" in a much greater problem. "

Slovic's research tells us that when confronted with compelling statistics or mass trauma, our response is not near the level when we are confronted with helping one individual.

Slovic tells us, "People are much more willing to aid identified individuals than unidentified or statistical victims." The research tells us the contribution is nearly half when it is focused on the large scale problem.

Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine recently wrote about the unusual approach that Bill and Melinda Gates are taking with their philanthropy. They are willing to tackle large scale issues that kill millions ----often preventable issues (malaria, diarrhea...). They have embarked and attacked the statistical world of human need.

Thompson asserts that Gates has the unique capacity to imagine large scale issues with a large scale response. He says for most of mankind, "We're very good at processing the plight of tiny groups of people but horrible at conceptualizing the suffering of large ones."

Instead he says: "Gates looks at them and runs the moral algorithm: Preventable death = bad; preventable death x 1 million people = 1 million times as bad."

One of the leadership issues we face at United Way is to take the conditions we face as a region --- large scale poverty, education gap, financial gap --- and translate it into work, results and stories that individuals can relate and respond to.

This is in many ways our work: creating pathways of engagement and understanding for individuals so that we can improve our collective community.



One person at a time. One step at a time.

Thanks for reading. Pass it on.