### abstract ###
most people are caring and will exert great effort to rescue individual victims whose needy plight comes to their attention
these same good people  however  often become numbly indifferent to the plight of individuals who are  one of many  in a much greater problem
why does this occur
the answer to this question will help us answer a related question that is the topic of this paper  why  over the past century  have good people repeatedly ignored mass murder and genocide
every episode of mass murder is unique and raises unique obstacles to intervention
but the repetitiveness of such atrocities  ignored by powerful people and nations  and by the general public  calls for explanations that may reflect some fundamental deficiency in our humanitya deficiency that  once identified  might possibly be overcome
one fundamental mechanism that may play a role in many  if not all  episodes of mass-murder neglect involves the capacity to experience affect  the positive and negative feelings that combine with reasoned analysis to guide our judgments  decisions  and actions
i shall draw from psychological research to show how the statistics of mass murder or genocide  no matter how large the numbers  fail to convey the true meaning of such atrocities
the reported numbers of deaths represent dry statistics   human beings with the tears dried off   that fail to spark emotion or feeling and thus fail to motivate action
recognizing that we cannot rely only upon our moral feelings to motivate proper action against genocide  we must look to moral argument and international law
the  NUMBER  genocide convention was supposed to meet this need  but it has not been effective
it is time to examine this failure in light of the psychological deficiencies described here and design legal and institutional mechanisms that will enforce proper response to genocide and other forms of mass murder
### introduction ###
my title is taken from a statement by mother teresa   if i look at the mass i will never act
if i look at the one  i will
     these two observations capture a powerful and deeply unsettling insight into human nature
most people are caring and will exert great effort to rescue  the one  whose needy plight comes to their attention
these same good people  however  often become numbly indifferent to the plight of  the one  who is  one of many  in a much greater problem
why does this occur
the answer to this question will help us answer a related question  why do good people ignore mass murder and genocide
an internet columnist  CITATION  frames this question and the topic of my paper        why do we ignore mass murder and genocide
there is no simple answer
it is not because we are insensitive to the suffering of our fellow human beingswitness the extraordinary efforts we expend to rescue someone in distress
it is not because we only care about identifiable victims  of similar skin color  who live near us  witness the outpouring of aid to victims of the december  NUMBER  tsunami in south asia
we cannot simply blame our political leaders
although president bush has been quite unresponsive to the murder of hundreds of thousands of people in darfur  it was clinton who ignored rwanda  and roosevelt who did little to stop the holocaust
behind every president who ignored mass murder were millions of citizens whose indifference allowed them to get away with it
it's not fear of losing american lives in battle that necessarily deters us from acting
we have not even taken quite safe steps that could save many lives  such as bombing the radio stations in rwanda that were coordinating the slaughter by machete of  NUMBER   NUMBER  people in  NUMBER  days  or supporting the forces of the african union in darfur  or just raising our powerful american voices in a threatening shoutstop that killing
- as opposed to turning away in silence
every episode of mass murder is unique and raises unique social  economic  military  and political obstacles to intervention
but the repetitiveness of such atrocities  ignored by powerful people and nations  and by the general public  calls for explanations that may reflect some fundamental deficiency in our humanitya deficiency that  once identified  might possibly be overcome
this paper examines one fundamental mechanism that may play a role in many  if not all  episodes of mass-murder neglect
this mechanism involves the capacity to experience affect  the positive and negative feelings that combine with reasoned analysis to guide our judgments  decisions  and actions
many researchers have begun to study the  dance of affect and reason  as it applies to decision making
i shall draw from this research to show how the statistics of mass murder or genocide  no matter how large the numbers  fail to convey the true meaning of such atrocities
the numbers fail to spark emotion or feeling and thus fail to motivate action
genocide in darfur is real  but we do not  feel  that reality
i shall conclude with suggestions about how we might make genocide  feel real  and motivate appropriate interventions
i shall also argue that we cannot only depend on our feelings about these atrocities but  in addition  we must create and commit ourselves to institutional and political responses based upon reasoned analysis of our moral obligations to stop the mass annihilation of innocent people
although i have attempted to fashion a compelling explanation for genocide neglect that has implications for action  the story is not complete
the psychological account  while based on theory and recent empirical studies  clearly needs further testing and development  particularly to examine more directly the relationship between imagery  affect  and sensitivity to numbers
the action implications remain to be elaborated by legal scholars and others
