1 00:00:01,236 --> 00:00:09,556 one very useful story to help us think about the identifiable victim effect is 2 00:00:09,556 --> 00:00:15,562 the story of Baby Jessica. Baby Jessica was a little girl in Texas 3 00:00:15,562 --> 00:00:19,536 that fell to a hole. This was u, some kind of digging h, device 4 00:00:19,536 --> 00:00:24,420 and she fell into it and she was there for quite a long time for I think about 50 5 00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:26,860 hours or so. But she, she was stuck there. 6 00:00:26,860 --> 00:00:31,051 It was really, it was really sad and our hearts went to her. 7 00:00:31,051 --> 00:00:36,107 And you know what, she had more CNN and coverage than Rwanda and Darfur put 8 00:00:36,107 --> 00:00:38,340 together. And the question is why? 9 00:00:38,340 --> 00:00:44,597 And of course it's about the fact that she was young, cute, innocent girl, who fell 10 00:00:44,597 --> 00:00:48,340 into the well. And we could all look at the TV coverage. 11 00:00:48,340 --> 00:00:51,909 We could all sympathize. We could all feel her pain and the pain of 12 00:00:51,909 --> 00:00:56,088 her parents. And there were some as this drama evolved. 13 00:00:56,088 --> 00:01:02,306 Eventually somebody rescued her and that picture is an incredibly iconic picture in 14 00:01:02,306 --> 00:01:05,349 the history of rescue. And everybody was very happy. 15 00:01:05,350 --> 00:01:09,550 By the way, after the fact, people started donating money to Baby Jessica. 16 00:01:09,550 --> 00:01:12,155 She was already safe. But after the fact, she don-, they donated 17 00:01:12,155 --> 00:01:15,246 money for her. And she became a very wealthy young lady, 18 00:01:15,246 --> 00:01:19,109 when she, came of age, and could get, could get this money. 19 00:01:20,500 --> 00:01:26,587 Why do we care so much about her and not about, not about other things? 20 00:01:26,588 --> 00:01:29,339 And this of course is the problem of genocide. 21 00:01:29,339 --> 00:01:33,479 And you can look at the history of the world and you can look at all kinds of 22 00:01:33,479 --> 00:01:38,290 terrible things that have happened. And every time, we wake up after the 23 00:01:38,290 --> 00:01:40,970 tragedy and we say, never again, never again. 24 00:01:40,970 --> 00:01:44,316 And every time, it happens again and again and again. 25 00:01:44,316 --> 00:01:49,966 And if you just look at the list of all the genocide that happen in the world this 26 00:01:49,966 --> 00:01:54,200 is just incredibly sad. And this of course is not new observation. 27 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:59,084 You can see all kinds of thoughtful people in our past who have commented on this 28 00:01:59,084 --> 00:02:02,280 idea. >> [music] I am deeply moved if I see one 29 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,762 man suffering and would risk my life for him. 30 00:02:05,763 --> 00:02:10,768 Then I talk impersonally about the possible pulverization of our big cities, 31 00:02:10,768 --> 00:02:14,485 with a hundred million dead. I am unable to multiply one man's 32 00:02:14,485 --> 00:02:21,256 suffering by a hundred million. >> The numbers are important, and yet 33 00:02:21,256 --> 00:02:25,189 there are not everything. For whatever reasons, images often strike 34 00:02:25,189 --> 00:02:28,193 us more powerfully, more deeply than numbers. 35 00:02:28,194 --> 00:02:32,622 We seem unable to hold the emotions aroused by numbers for nearly as long as 36 00:02:32,622 --> 00:02:35,726 those of images. We quickly grow numb to the facts and the 37 00:02:35,726 --> 00:02:42,594 math. >> The atrocities that were known remained 38 00:02:42,594 --> 00:02:48,790 abstract and remote. Because the savagery of genocide so defies 39 00:02:48,790 --> 00:02:53,222 our everyday experience, many of us failed to wrap our minds around it. 40 00:02:53,222 --> 00:02:57,898 Bystanders were thus able to retreat to the twilight between knowing and not 41 00:02:57,898 --> 00:03:03,193 knowing. >> The discussion of an infallible victim 42 00:03:03,193 --> 00:03:07,280 effect is mostly kind of depressing, but there is a brighter version of it, which 43 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:11,738 is to look at what spammers are doing. And spammers are interesting because they 44 00:03:11,738 --> 00:03:15,786 try different version, they learn what's working and not working. 45 00:03:15,786 --> 00:03:20,125 And if you got spam, you probably got spam that looks much like this. 46 00:03:20,125 --> 00:03:25,230 From somebody who's a twenty three year old female in somewhere in Africa and she 47 00:03:25,230 --> 00:03:30,180 has a particular problem and you can get pictures of her and you can create all of 48 00:03:30,180 --> 00:03:33,800 those things. And of course, what spammers are trying to 49 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:38,975 do are trying to create an emotional link with us, they try to portray themselves as 50 00:03:38,975 --> 00:03:43,858 individuals, individuals in problems. When they try to get us to care about 51 00:03:43,858 --> 00:03:47,444 them, to want to work with them, to want to help them. 52 00:03:47,445 --> 00:03:53,466 I've talked to some people who are working for companies like Yahoo and Microsoft and 53 00:03:53,466 --> 00:03:58,944 trying to basically reduce the chances that they're users are going to fall for 54 00:03:58,944 --> 00:04:03,509 those scams. And what, what happens, what they say 55 00:04:03,509 --> 00:04:07,994 often is that they get them through some church bulletin board or through some 56 00:04:07,994 --> 00:04:11,419 online dating. And they started to create a relationship 57 00:04:11,419 --> 00:04:15,399 with them that last over a while. And they ask for money first and they ask 58 00:04:15,399 --> 00:04:18,050 for then a little bit and little bit more and so on. 59 00:04:18,050 --> 00:04:23,610 It's the relationship that they build and the caring that they build and then they 60 00:04:23,610 --> 00:04:28,264 abuse to a very high degree. And, so this is what spammers and, you 61 00:04:28,264 --> 00:04:33,682 know, people who tries to get us to part with our money, doing the internet in 62 00:04:33,682 --> 00:04:37,200 terms of using the identifiable victim effect. 63 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:41,360 There's one more thing that is not connected to that, that is just worthwhile 64 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,791 mentioning as long as we deal with spammers and scammers. 65 00:04:44,791 --> 00:04:50,012 If you got these letters, these emails, you probably noticed that their grammar is 66 00:04:50,012 --> 00:04:52,617 not that good. And the question is why. 67 00:04:52,618 --> 00:04:55,547 And one possibility is that they just can't write. 68 00:04:55,548 --> 00:04:58,610 But there's been another suggestion, which is kind of interesting. 69 00:04:58,610 --> 00:05:00,835 And that suggestion is that they do it on purpose. 70 00:05:00,836 --> 00:05:06,090 The their problem is that they send lots of emails out, and they want the email 71 00:05:06,090 --> 00:05:11,502 that comes back to be from the people who are the most gullible, the most ones who 72 00:05:11,502 --> 00:05:15,464 are likely to follow. If many of us who would never go with 73 00:05:15,464 --> 00:05:20,469 those scams, would start writing them, they would be burdened by the amount of 74 00:05:20,469 --> 00:05:25,089 work that they have to respond to all these people as they try to push them 75 00:05:25,089 --> 00:05:30,039 through the different steps of the scams. So what they want is they want a system 76 00:05:30,039 --> 00:05:34,938 that would leave the gullible people in the system and get rid of all the people 77 00:05:34,938 --> 00:05:39,685 who might not follow with them. And one suggestion has been that adding 78 00:05:39,685 --> 00:05:45,510 spelling mistakes are actually a way to differentiate between those two people. 79 00:05:45,510 --> 00:05:49,416 But if they wrote in a nice way, maybe more people who would not be, giving the 80 00:05:49,416 --> 00:05:53,560 money at the end of the day will come into the final, wouldn't waste their time. 81 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:58,048 So by creating lots of spelling mistakes, they get rid of some of the less gullible 82 00:05:58,048 --> 00:06:00,380 people. They stay with the more gullible people. 83 00:06:00,380 --> 00:06:03,260 And this way they can concentrate their efforts. 84 00:06:03,260 --> 00:06:08,275 Now, the evidence for this is just starting to build up, but I think it's 85 00:06:08,275 --> 00:06:11,980 interesting. In any case I think that spammers are 86 00:06:11,980 --> 00:06:17,017 people who are getting very quick learning process because they get to send lots of 87 00:06:17,017 --> 00:06:20,220 emails. They get to get lots of responses back, 88 00:06:20,220 --> 00:06:22,964 and very quickly, they can learn and adapt. 89 00:06:22,964 --> 00:06:29,896 Sad, but if you wanted to be in the domain of learning something about human behavior 90 00:06:29,897 --> 00:06:36,647 spamming this probably a good place to learn how people really think and behave. 91 00:06:36,648 --> 00:06:40,991 When we thing of that emotions and cognitive inputs into, into decision, 92 00:06:40,991 --> 00:06:44,787 there's a question of when does one of them overpower the other. 93 00:06:44,787 --> 00:06:48,763 And when do we get the kind of information is actually good for us. 94 00:06:48,764 --> 00:06:52,717 So there was one early experiment that I really, really love. 95 00:06:52,718 --> 00:06:57,690 And they got people into a room and they say, which jam would you like to buy? 96 00:06:57,690 --> 00:07:01,340 And they showed them all kind of jams. And to other people they said, which kind 97 00:07:01,340 --> 00:07:05,364 of poster would you like to get? And then the people got the jam that they 98 00:07:05,364 --> 00:07:09,844 wanted or got the poster they wanted and they went to their dorm room and ate or 99 00:07:09,844 --> 00:07:13,039 didn't eat the jam and hang or didn't hang the poster. 100 00:07:13,039 --> 00:07:17,654 And they went back and they measured later how much jam did they eat and did they 101 00:07:17,654 --> 00:07:20,877 hang the poster or not. But here's a thing. 102 00:07:20,877 --> 00:07:25,810 When they initially made them decide, some people, they just said, just decide. 103 00:07:25,810 --> 00:07:27,579 Use your emotion. What would you like? 104 00:07:27,580 --> 00:07:30,340 And some people, they gave them cognitive input. 105 00:07:30,340 --> 00:07:34,253 They gave them ratings from experts. They gave them all kinds of other 106 00:07:34,253 --> 00:07:37,200 information. Which one of them do you think was the 107 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:39,790 right one? The ones including just the emotion in the 108 00:07:39,790 --> 00:07:43,280 beginning of the one including both the emotion and the cognitive input. 109 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:47,259 Well, when people just based, work based on emotion. 110 00:07:47,260 --> 00:07:51,820 They made decisions they liked better on. If they bought jam based on emotions, they 111 00:07:51,820 --> 00:07:55,295 got jam and they ate the jam. If they got their poster based on emotion, 112 00:07:55,295 --> 00:07:57,407 they got their poster and they put it on the wall. 113 00:07:57,408 --> 00:08:01,140 But if people started using more of cognitive thought, all of a sudden they 114 00:08:01,140 --> 00:08:04,750 got jam that they did not use and they got poster that they did not hang up. 115 00:08:04,750 --> 00:08:08,918 Why? The reality is the consumption experience 116 00:08:08,918 --> 00:08:12,137 of jams and posters is all about the emotions. 117 00:08:12,138 --> 00:08:14,827 What do you get? What kind of pleasure do you get? 118 00:08:14,828 --> 00:08:17,310 When it's on your wall or when you're eating it in the morning. 119 00:08:17,310 --> 00:08:21,490 It's not about cognitive thought. So what this suggest is that when the 120 00:08:21,490 --> 00:08:26,458 decision environment Includes the same element as the consumption environment, 121 00:08:26,458 --> 00:08:30,262 that will be the ideal situation. And if you have a situation in which 122 00:08:30,262 --> 00:08:34,282 includes something irrelevant to the consumption, that is not going to work 123 00:08:34,282 --> 00:08:36,819 out. So it means to think, it means that their 124 00:08:36,819 --> 00:08:39,476 inputs or emotional cognition are different. 125 00:08:39,476 --> 00:08:43,346 And it means that you want to think about what is your conceptional experience when 126 00:08:43,346 --> 00:08:46,302 to be like. Are you going to be consuming based on 127 00:08:46,302 --> 00:08:50,270 emotion or based on cognition, and how can you make the decision environment 128 00:08:50,270 --> 00:08:53,717 encapsulate those elements that are going to be relevant later. 129 00:08:53,718 --> 00:08:56,364 Another example for this is from Chris Hsee. 130 00:08:56,364 --> 00:09:00,858 Imagine you go into a store and you see different speakers for your new, wonderful 131 00:09:00,858 --> 00:09:04,578 stereo. And some speakers look more beautiful, and 132 00:09:04,578 --> 00:09:08,046 some sound better. What's more important? 133 00:09:08,046 --> 00:09:12,557 Well, when you stand in the store, you see them side by side. 134 00:09:12,558 --> 00:09:17,160 So now, all of a sudden, tiny differences in quality might seem very big for you. 135 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,544 Because you put your headphone on, and you say, left, right, left, right. 136 00:09:20,544 --> 00:09:24,027 And tiny differences in quality might seem relevant. 137 00:09:24,028 --> 00:09:27,619 And you might decide to get the ugly one that sounds likely better. 138 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:32,560 But then you take it home, and when you take it home you only have one speaker. 139 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:36,590 And you can't do the, compare this one to this one and this one to this one, all of 140 00:09:36,590 --> 00:09:40,710 a sudden you get just one. And now you got one that has slightly 141 00:09:40,710 --> 00:09:47,080 higher quality of sound but is uglier, and the ugliness stays with you for a long, 142 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:51,039 for a long time. So, think about this notion, of the fit, 143 00:09:51,039 --> 00:09:55,807 between the decision environment and the consumption environment. 144 00:09:55,808 --> 00:10:00,661 And think about what roles are emotions playing in one, versus the other. 145 00:10:00,661 --> 00:10:05,185 And if you can get those to be more compatible and more similar, you can 146 00:10:05,185 --> 00:10:09,348 actually get people, and yourself, to make better decisions.