You may notice that charity campaigns tend to focus on the stories of one or two individuals or families, and that those stories are often rich with emotional content but light on information and statistics. There’s a reason for that.

In this episode of Choiceology with Katy Milkman, we look at the different ways we tend to be captivated and motivated by individuals and their stories, while on the other hand, we often become numb or disengaged when presented with large numbers or statistical information.

Carol Quirke tells the story of Dorothea Lange and her most famous photograph. Dorothea Lange was a documentary photographer who did important work raising awareness of the plight of migrant workers during the Great Depression. But one of her photos stands above the rest: Migrant Mother. You’ll hear the story of how that photograph came to be, and the effect it had on public policy.

You can view the image online at the Library of Congress.

Carol Quirke is a professor at SUNY Old Westbury, and the author of Eyes on Labor and Dorothea Lange, Documentary Photography, and the Twentieth Century: Reinventing Self and Nation.

Next, Deborah Small joins Katy to discuss two separate but related phenomena that describe the way we process information about small and large numbers. You can read her paper with George Loewenstein called Helping a Victim of Helping the Victim: Altruism and Identifiability for a deeper explanation of the identifiable victim effect and you can learn more about scope insensitivity through the work of Paul Slovic and others in the paper Scope insensitivity: The limits of intuitive valuation of human lives in public policy.

Deborah Small is the Laura and John J. Pomerantz Professor of Marketing and Psychology at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Finally, Katy gives you simple strategies to help put larger numbers in context, and to make better decisions around seemingly abstract statistics.

Choiceology is an original podcast from Charles Schwab. For more on the series, visit schwab.com/podcast.

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Important Disclosures

All expressions of opinion are subject to change without notice in reaction to shifting market conditions.

The comments, views, and opinions expressed in the presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the views of Charles Schwab.

Data contained herein from third-party providers is obtained from what are considered reliable sources. However, its accuracy, completeness or reliability cannot be guaranteed.

The book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (CS&Co.). Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (CS&Co.) has not reviewed the book and makes no representations about its content.

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