Why Your Brain Wants To Help One Person, But Not Millions

Why do people sometimes give generously to one cause or need, but not to others?

For international relief and development groups, which address issues affecting millions or hundreds of millions of people, that’s an important question.

The temptation is to describe the enormity of the need. 

If people know that over 800 million people in the world don’t have enough to eat, surely they will respond—right?

Wrong. In fact, the opposite occurs.

That’s what psychologist Paul Slovic of the University of Oregon has found through his research on why people give. 

During the research, he told people about a young girl suffering from starvation and then measured how much they were willing to donate to help her.

He told another group about the starving little girl, but also noted the millions of others like her who are also suffering from starvation.

What did he find?

"People who were shown the statistics along with the information about the little girl gave about half as much money as those who just saw the little girl," he said.

On a rational level, this doesn’t make sense. 

You would think that talking about the hundreds of millions of people who are also hungry would bolster the argument by showing the seriousness of the situation.

The problem, Slovic says, is that the numbers de-motivate people.

By adding the statistics, people felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the need, “that nothing I can do will make a big difference," he says.

Slovic's research suggests that the way to combat this hopelessness is to focus only on one person. This gives people a sense that their intervention can, in fact, make a difference.

In academic circles, this is known as the “singularity effect,” or “compassion fade.”  

Through the singularity effect, people are more motivated to help a single person in need than millions of people.

It’s important to note that people don’t respond in a conscious way—they don’t deliberately decide not to help people because they hear about millions of people are in need.

This response occurs at an unconscious level; it’s what our brains automatically do.

Says Slovic: "As the numbers grow, we sort of lose the emotional connection to the people who are in need."

People who work for international NGOs deal with the big picture—that’s their job. 

But when it comes to eliciting response and donations, little pictures are better.

Apparently, that’s all our brains can handle.