If I Look at the Mass I Will Never Act: Psychic NumbingPsychic Numbing and GenocideGenocide

Abstract

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. Why does this occur? Answering this question will help us address the topic of this paper: Why, over the past century, have good people repeatedly ignored mass murder and genocide? I shall draw from psychological research to show how the statistics of mass murder or genocide, no matter how large the numbers do not convey the true meaning of such atrocities. The reported numbers of deaths fail to spark emotion or feeling and thus fail to motivate action. Recognizing that we cannot rely only upon our moral feelings to motivate proper action against genocide, we must look to moral argument and international law. The 1948 Genocide Convention was supposed to meet this need, but it has not been effective. It is time to examine this failure in light of the psychological deficiencies described here and design legal and institutional mechanisms that will enforce proper response to mass murder. Implications pertaining to technological risk will also be discussed.