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jacobra2 · 4866 days ago · link · · parent · post: Statistical numbing: Why millions can die and we don't care
i think one thing to take into account is something similar to the bystander effect. when you donate to one person, it's easy to imagine that your money is directly benefiting them. when you're asked to donate to multiple people (whether it be 2 or 29k), you start getting overwhelmed and perceive your donation as insignificant.
i distrust market target marketing as much as the next guy, but why not put this data to use: why not market all of starving africa as one emotional story about a single individual. and then disperse that money however. ya know, throw some fine print at the bottom of the advertisement and call it a business model....
thenewgreen · 4783 days ago · link ·
Why not take this a step further than that and actually market the individual? You're not supporting an "African" or a "Haitian", you're supporting "William" or "Javier"... you're supporting a person that loves to paint or a person that has the dream to be able to one day own their own land to grow crops of.....
you get the point. Humanize them not abstractly, but literally. Why shouldn't I be able to directly support Javier? This is the future of altruism.
Good point about the need to feel that your donation is actually going to do something. The big-picture view is so bad so often, it seems like there's no point trying. But probably few people think there's no point trying to save the life of one specific person.