The Telescope Effect By Shankar Vedantam

Journal Eleven

In “The Telescope Effect” Shankar Vedantam states his theories on why people are so willing to help a single person deal with tragedy. However, when it comes to mass tragedies or terror people seem to shy away from helping or lending a hand. Vedantam seems to bring to light some issues people have in their minds when it comes to who they provide help for. Vedantam in the beginning of the essay tells the story of a Dog named Hokget and how the puppy was abandoned by her owner on a big tanker lost at sea. Shankar states that, “Something about a lost puppy on an abandoned ship on the Pacific gripped people’s imaginations. Money poured into the Humane Society to fund a rescue.” (401) Hokget was a single puppy that people felt compassion

Shankar proves a point by adding, “The same world that showed extraordinary compassion in the rescue of a dog sat on its hands some eight years earlier as a million human beings were killed in Rwanda.” (401) In other words, a telescope effect takes place when we read about one single horrific event. People seem to be drawn towards that single thing happening more so then an event dealing with several. Shankar says, “This telescope is activated when we hear a single cry for help—the child drowning in the pond, the puppy abandoned on an ocean. When we think of human suffering on a mass scale, our telescope does not work, because it was not designed to work in such situations.” (404) Vedantam ends his essay by stating, “Our conscious minds can tell us that it is absurd to spend a boatload of money to save one life when the same money could be used to save ten—just as it can tell us it is absurd to be more worried about homicide than suicide. But in moral decision-making, as in many other domains of life where we are unaware of how conscious biases influences us, it is the hidden brain that usually carries the day.” (405) For the most part this essay was to explain to the reader about how we process our thoughts when it comes to the way we think. One tragic event is easier to understand and comprehend then many things