Valuing Lives You Can Save: Understanding and Combatting Value Collapse as Numbers Increase

重视您可以挽救的生命：理解并应对随着数字增加而导致的价值崩溃

• 批准号: 1227729
• 负责人: Paul Slovic
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: Decision Science Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1227729&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Valuing; Lives; Save; Understanding; Combatting

In a rational world, as threats to life increase in scale, potential efforts to protect those lives should increase proportionally. Unfortunately, in many circumstances, the opposite occurs. Compassion and societal concerns decrease rather than increase in the face of larger threats. The studies proposed here aim to examine the psychological underpinnings of this perverse phenomenon and examine its importance for theoretical models of valuation and, more broadly, for the welfare of society. The research uses a web panel to conduct eight studies that, with comoponent substudies, total around sixteen experiments.Prospect theory is arguably the most important descriptive theoretical framework in the field of decision making. According to this theory, valuation of human life follows an ever-increasing function that places greater overall importance on the threat as the number of lives at risk increases. Researchers have found empirical support for this function, but some believe that valuation of lives takes other forms besides that depicted in prospect theory. This research tests the hypothesis that, in some instances, "the more who die, the less we care," a form of valuation that is inconsistent with prospect theory. In some contexts, valuation may follow an inverse-U trajectory, rising with increasing numbers of lives at stake up to a threshold, but then collapsing as the number continues to increase.In addition to this theoretical extension of prospect theory, the research has important practical implications. Devaluation of life in the face of large-scale crises may help us understand failures to respond aggressively to mass threats posed by poverty, disease, famine, natural disasters, violence, and species extinction. We hope, as well, that this understanding will point the way toward better decisions through improved processes of analysis and deliberation and the creation of laws and institutions designed to overcome value collapse.

在一个理性的世界中，随着对生命的威胁的增加，保护这些生命的潜在努力应成比例地增加。不幸的是，在许多情况下，发生了相反的情况。面对更大的威胁时，同情和社会问题会减少而不是增加。这里提出的研究旨在检查这种不正当现象的心理基础，并研究其对估值理论模型以及更广泛地对社会福利的重要性。该研究使用网络面板进行了八项研究，这些研究以共同的物质为基础，大约有16个实验。可以说，理论可以说是决策领域中最重要的描述性理论框架。根据这一理论，人类生活的估值遵循了不断增长的功能，随着处于风险的生命数量的增加，威胁的总体重要性更大。研究人员发现了对这一功能的经验支持，但是有些人认为，除了前景理论中所描绘的那样，生活的估值也采取了其他形式。这项研究检验了以下假设：在某些情况下，“死亡的人越多，我们关心的人就越少”，一种与前景理论不一致的估值形式。在某些情况下，估值可能会遵循反向U的轨迹，随着生命数量的增加而升高到阈值，但随后随着数量的数量的增加而崩溃。除了对前景理论的这一理论扩展，研究具有重要的实际含义。面对大规模危机，生命贬值可能有助于我们理解失败，以对贫困，疾病，饥荒，自然灾害，暴力和物种灭绝的大规模威胁做出积极反应。我们也希望，这种理解将通过改进分析和审议过程以及旨在克服价值崩溃的法律和制度的创建来指向更好决策的道路。