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

This survey tested the effect of identifiability and picture on the willingness to provide a vaccination to a single child. Subjects were told of a single child needing a vaccine, as well as 5 other children in a different area. The subject could choose to deny the single child of the vaccine in order to provide the 5 other children vaccines. There were 8 between subjects conditions: 2 (single child identified x no not identified x 2 (5 other children identified x not identified) x 2 (picture or no picture). There is an increased willingness to help identified individuals rather than non-identified, and the effect of identifiability is mainly present when a single individual rather than a group is presented. The present research uses a joint evaluation approach to examine the relative contribution of identifiability and singularity moral decision-making reflecting conflicting values between deontology and consequentialism