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The singularity effect is the name for how we care disproportionately about an individual as compared to a group. Think Saving Private Ryan, where an enormous effort is launched to save a single soldier in the Second World War. It turns out that even as you add a second person, there’s some justification for something known as compassion fade. The addition of more people doesn’t increase our willingness to help proportionally — our compassion fades as more people are involved.
See the work of Paul Slovic.
Also see: psychic numbing
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