[extropy-chat] Death Toll

[Neil H.]

On 7/10/05, Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
> The loss of 50 lives in London is horrible.
> 
> In today's news, insurgents killed at least 20 Iraqis. Yesterday, 20
> Iraqis were killed by insurgents. So far this year, on average, at least
> 50 Iraqis per week have been killed by insurgents, and some number of
> insurgents and/or Iraqi non-combatants have been killed by American
> and/or Alliance troops.
> 
> Why are we more upset by the loss of lives in London than by the loss of
> lives in Iraq?

Or for that matter, why we're more upset by the loss of lives in
London than by a similar number of lost lives in, say, Jerusalem. I'm
not completely certain myself, but I suspect a large part of it has to
do with the fact that this is the first time (I think) that militant
Islamists have attacked the UK. Novel events tend to be more salient
and important from an information perspective.

-- Neil