Recent research on people’s reaction to mistreatment adds a twist to our knowledge about the limits of empathy
Consider a person who would contribute $10 to help an impoverished child. Now, suppose that person is asked to help 10 such children. Will the donor give $100? Just the opposite: The most common response, studies have found, is to give less than $10... Why does the suffering of one person affect us more than that of many?.. a single victim more readily engages our empathy.. Participants who had been told that the whole group was victimized found the deception less upsetting than the individuals who were told that they had been singled out... Lessened empathy for a group, studies have shown, is based in part on donors speculating that the misfortune must have been the victims’ own fault... large numbers of the needy remind us of our own insignificance as specks in the universe, trying in vain to make a difference... Telling a person that he was targeted because of the sort of person he is aches the most. It makes him complicit in his own victimhood.