Compassion fade

Not to be confused with Compassion fatigue.
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Compassion fade is the tendency to experience a decrease in empathy as the number of people in need of aid increase.[1] As a type of cognitive bias, it has a significant effect on the prosocial behaviour from which helping behaviour generates.[2] The term was developed by psychologist and researcher Paul Slovic.[3]

This phenomenon can especially be observed through individuals' reluctance to help when faced with mass crises. Accordingly, directly linked to the idea of compassion fade is what Slovic, along with Deborah Small, refer to as the collapse of compassion (or compassion collapse), a psychological theory denoting the human tendency to turn away from mass suffering.[4] Slovic also introduced the concept of psychophysical numbing—the diminished sensitivity to the value of life and an inability to appreciate loss—by taking a collectivist interpretation of the phenomenon of psychic numbing to discuss how people respond to mass atrocities.[5][6]

The most common explanation for compassion fade is the use of a mental shortcut or heuristic called the 'affect heuristic', which causes people to make decisions based on emotional attachments to a stimulus.[7] Other explanations for compassion fade include affective bias (empathy is greatest when one is able to visualise a victim) and motivated emotion regulation (when people suppress feelings to avoid being emotionally overwhelmed).[8] Other cognitive biases that contribute to compassion fade include the identifiable victim effect (IVE), pseudo-inefficacy,[9][10] and the prominence effect.[11][12]

Compassion fade has also been used in reference to "the arithmetic of compassion."[13][14]

  1. ^ Butts, Marcus M.; Lunt, Devin C.; Freling, Traci L.; Gabriel, Allison S. (2019). "Helping one or helping many? A theoretical integration and meta-analytic review of the compassion fade literature". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 151. Elsevier BV: 16–33. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.12.006. ISSN 0749-5978. S2CID 149806445.
  2. ^ Morris, S., and J. Cranney (2018). "The imperfect mind." Pp. 19–42 in The Rubber Brain. Australian Academic Press.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Coviden, Kaelin. "The Collapse of Compassion." Thoughts of Ascent.
  5. ^ Slovic, Paul; David Zionts; Andrew K. Woods; Ryan Goodman; Derek Jinks (2011). "Psychic numbing and mass atrocity". New York University School of Law: 1–17. SSRN 1809951.
  6. ^ "Why 500,000 COVID-19 Deaths May Not Feel Any Different: Short Wave". NPR.org. 2021-02-09. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  7. ^ Slovic, Paul; Finucane, Melissa L.; Peters, Ellen; MacGregor, Donald G. (2007-03-16). "The affect heuristic". European Journal of Operational Research. 177 (3): 1333–1352. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2005.04.006. ISSN 0377-2217. S2CID 1941040.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference comp-fade was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "pseudoinefficacy." Arithmetic of Compassion.
  10. ^ Västfjäll, Daniel; Slovic, Paul; Mayorga, Marcus (18 May 2015). "Pseudoinefficacy: negative feelings from children who cannot be helped reduce warm glow for children who can be helped". Frontiers in Psychology. 6. Frontiers Media SA: 616. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00616. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 4434905. PMID 26042058.
  11. ^ "Prominence". The Arithmetic of Compassion. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  12. ^ Delaney, David G., and Paul Slovic. 2019. "Countering the Prominence Effect: How US National Security Lawyers Can Fulfill Non-Prominent Humanitarian Objectives." Journal of National Security Law and Policy 10(1):45-76.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "About the Arithmetic of Compassion".