Darfur

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

Publications and Presentations

On May 10, 2011, Dr. Slovic posted an Op-Ed to the Ottawa Citizen entitled "The Psychology of Intervention: Why We Need a Villain."

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

Michel-Kerjan, E., & Slovic, P. (2010, October 7). The collapse of compassion. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erwann-michelkerjan/pakistan-the-collapse-of-_b_751192.html.

Slovic, P. (2009, October). Can international law stop genocide when our moral intuitions fail us?

Paper presented at the Hauser Globalization Colloquium, Fall 2009: International Approaches to International Law, New York.

Slovic, P. (2008, December). The more who die, the less we care? Thinking and deciding rationally about catastrophic losses.

Paper presented at The Irrational Economist Conference and Bookwriting, Philadelphia, PA. Abstract retrieved from http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/risk/tie3/abstracts/PaulSlovic.pdf

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.

Slovic, P. (2007, April 20). 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, April 11). Too many to care. Message posted to The Situationist, The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School.

Slovic, P. (2007, April 7). Genocide: When compassion fails. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19425985.400-genocide-when-compasstion-fails.html

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

Keith Epstein's spring 2006 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, "Crisis mentality: Why sudden emergencies attract more funds than do chronic conditions, and how nonprofits can change that," includes a nice discussion of our charity research (PDF).

The Power of One: Psychic Numbing, Genocide & Motivating Audience In his February 28, 2010 blog post, "The Power of One: Psychic Numbing, Genocide & Motivating Audience Behavior," filmmaker Eric Metzgar followed New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the documentary "Reporter." Metzgar references psychologist Paul Slovic's research on "psychic numbing" and genocide, which influences Kristof's approach.

Erwann Michel-Kerjan and Paul Slovic, "A More Dangerous World: Why We Misunderstand Risk." Newsweek, published online February 19, 2010.

Nicholas Kristof surprised NPR staff with Dr. Slovic's research findings in an interview that aired February 5, 2010.

Nicholas Kristof 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.

In November 2009, the Communications Network presented this webinar, Why We Care (And Why We Don't): A Conversation with Dr. Paul Slovic. Thanks to Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog, Getting To the Point, for their positive review and link to this presentation.

Emma Janke interviewed Paul Slovic on Sweden's Vetandets Värld February 10, 2009 (mostly in Swedish). Listen here.

Paul Slovic was interviewed on January 8, 2009 by Anna Maria Tremonti on CBC's The Current. Listen to the interview here, 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."

Paul Slovic was interviewed in Sweden in October, 2008, where he participated in the Interdisciplinary Research Conference on the Bystander. Listen to the interview.

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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The National Science Foundation's May 15, 2008 press release "Why Nations Fail to Act" includes coverage of Paul Slovic's work and a video interview in which he discusses psychic numbing, or "why people, who emotionally care for and respond to one person in need, tend to become emotionally numb to many people in need."

Paul Slovic was 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.

Paul's September 9, 2007 interview with World Vision Report is available here.

Ellen Peters was interviewed on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation report "Numbed by the Numbers: Tragedies in the News," 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.

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.

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

Applied Research

Genocide

Darfur