Darfur

Psychic Numbing and the Ongoing Genocide in Darfur
Dr. Paul Slovic, Research Scientist
Dr. Ellen Peters, Research Scientist

Publications and Presentations

Slovic, P. (2007) If I look at the mass I will never act: Psychic numbing and genocide. Judgment and Decision Making, 2, 1-17. Retrieved April 24, 2007 from http://journal.sjdm.org/vol2.2.htm

Slovic, P. (2008, December) The More Who Die, The Less We Care? Thinking and Deciding Rationally About Catastrophic Losses. Prepared for The Irrational Economist Conference and Bookwriting The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. PDF transcript available here.

Slovic, P (2009, October) Can International Law Stop Genocide When Our Moral Intuitions Fail Us?Presented at the Hauser Globalization Colloquium, Institute for International Law and Justice, New York University School of Law. PDF available here.

Slovic, P. (2007, April). If I look at the mass I will never act: Psychic numbing and genocide. Presented at The 2007 Princeton Colloquium on Public and International Affairs, Princeton, NJ. Voice and video recordings available at Princeton's University Channel.

Slovic, P. (2007, November) Psychic numbing and genocide. APA Psychological Science Agenda, 21. Retrieved November 15, 2007 from http://www.apa.org/science/psa/slovic.html

Slovic, P. (2007, October 9). Another Century of Genocide? continues Dr. Slovic's series of posts at The Situationist, The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School.
Paul Slovic participated in a panel entitled "The Ethics of Witnessing in the Public Domain," with Jerry Fowler, Nicholas Kristof, and Barbie Zelizer, as part of the University of Oregon's Symposium Witnessing Genocide: Representation and Responsibility, April 30, 2007. Watch streaming video of the panel and the rest of the Symposium here.
Slovic, P. (2007, April 11). Too Many To Care. Message posted to The Situationist, The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School
http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2007/04/11/too-many-to-care
Slovic, P. (2007, April 7). When Compassion Fails, [article preview] New Scientist, p. 18.
Slovic, P. (2007, March). Numbed by numbers. Foreign Policy. Retrieved April 4, 2007 from http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3751
Slovic, P. (2006, May 15). Has Anything Changed in Darfur? [Letter to the editor] The Register Guard.
Wright, Jeff. (2005, November 28). Researcher says carnage too easy to ignore. The Register Guard.
Slovic, P. (2005, September 12). Katrina moved us to act, so why not Darfur? The Register Guard.

Media Coverage

Emma Janke interviewed Paul Slovic on Sweden's Vetandets Värld February 10, 2009 (mostly in Swedish). Listen here: http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p1/program/amnessida.asp?programID=406&Nyheter=1&grupp=4313&artikel=2610687

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Nicholas Kristoff uses Dr. Slovic's work to support his arguments in his article "Nicholas Kristoff's Advice for Saving the World," Outside Magazine Online, December 2009.

Paul Slovic was interviewed on January 8, 2009 by Anna Maria Tremonti on CBC's The Current. Listen to the interview here (http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200901/20090108.html), in Part 1: Mass Suffering

Shankar Vedantam reported on Dr. Slovic's research in the Washington Post Monday, January 5, 2009 in his article entitled "Mass Suffering and Why We Look the Other Way." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401307.html

Paul Slovic was interviewed in Sweden in October, 2008, where he participated in the Interdisciplinary Research Conference on the Bystander. Listen to the interview at the [Living History Forum's web page: http://www.levandehistoria.se/node/2350]

Dr. Steve Shankman interviews Paul Slovic, on the University of Oregon Humanities Center's UO Today television program October 8, 2008. Dr. Slovic discusses his recent research into the psychological factors contributing to public apathy toward genocide. (Length: 28 min)

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Six-minute documentary overview of Dr. Slovic's research on psychic numbing and genocide. Produced in the Spring of 2008 by Desiree Aflleje, Emese Foss, and Jon Palfreman.
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National Science Foundation Press Release "Why Nations Fail to Act" May 15, 2008. Coverage of Paul Slovic's work and video interview in which Paul discuses Psychic Numbing: why people feel for one person, but feel less for many people. (direct link to video)

Paul Slovic is interviewed by Ci Holmgren on November 19, 2007 on Swedish Sveriges Radio P4 (mostly in Swedish)

Paul Slovic was interviewed for an article entitled "Why We Don't Care About Darfur." that appeared in the September, 2007 issue of O Magazine on page 236, available online at http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200709_omag_psychic_numbing

Ellen Peters is interviewed on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation "Numbed by the Numbers: Tragedies in the News" piece, July 17, 2007.
Richard Downes interviewed Dr. Slovic on Morning Ireland in a story entitled "Bush announces fresh sanctions against Sudan," May 30, 2007.
Paul was interviewed for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's "Voices on Genocide Prevention" podcast. Listen to "Mass Murder versus Individual Tragedy," which aired May 24, 2007.
Andrew Dilnot interviews Paul Slovic and reports on his research on BBC News' More or Less, May 14, 2007. Listen to the program entitled "The science of giving."
"Save the Darfur Puppy" is Nicholas Kristof's editorial about Dr. Slovic's research, published in the New York Times, May 10, 2007.
Dr. Slovic is featured on WNYC's The Leonard Lopate Show, April 26, 2007. Listen to the interview, "Underreported: Too Many To Care."
Marco Werman interviews Paul Slovic for PRI's The World, April 11, 2007
Listen to the Death of thousands interview
Bill Radke interviews Paul Slovic for Weekend America, April 7, 2007, in a segment entitled "What Makes a Person Care About Someone Else?"
Can Google Maps Make People Care About Genocide?, Appscout, April, 2007.
Paul Slovic is a guest on the the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, January 3rd, 2006. Listen to an archived version of the show here.

Links

Decision Research