How should we value the saving of human lives? If we believe that every human life is of equal value (a view likely endorsed by System 2 thinking), the value of saving N lives is N times the value of saving one life. An argument can also be made for a model in which large losses of life are disproportionately more serious because they threaten the social fabric and viability of a community.
The human cognitive and perceptual systems seem to be designed to sensitize us to small changes in our environment, possibly at the expense of making us less able to detect and respond to large changes. As the psychophysical research indicates, constant increases in the magnitude of a stimulus typically evoke smaller and smaller changes in response. Applying this principle to the valuing of human life suggests that a form of psychophysical numbing may result from our inability to appreciate losses of life as they become larger.
More: http://journal.sjdm.org/7303a/jdm7303a.htm
Updated on 11 Feb 2017.