Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: This paper describes a psychological phenomenon called psychic numbing that devalues lives when many are at stake and thus enables political leaders to neglect mass suffering, in violation of our professed humanitarian values.The authors argue for the need to use tools such as decision analysis to overcome this moral insensitivity and provide a more thoughtful and consistent framework within which to assess the difficult trade-offs posed by decisions involving mass atrocities.I n an address to the nation last March, President Obama put forth his rationale for joining NATO in a military mission to protect the lives of Libyan civilians.Faced with "the prospect of violence on a horrific scale," he argued that "Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocity in other countries.The United States of America is different.And, as President, I refuse to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action."At the same time, the president observed that we were not taking similar actions in other lands where atrocities were taking place: "America should not be expected to police the world, particularly when we have so many pressing needs here at home."As we shall discuss later, America has all too often failed to act in the face of genocide and other mass atrocities.Perhaps the United States acted in Libya because all of the political, military, and economic factors that usually trump human rights were in sync, for once, with humanitarian objectives.One suspects, however, that when the saving of human lives comes in conflict with other strategic objectives, the latter are invariably given disproportionate weight.
Authors: Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, Robin Gregory
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2007987569