Giving Salient Descriptions
Daniel J. Lewis, Steven R. Feldman · 2023
The horrible news of a single beheading elicits a much stronger reaction than hearing about tens of thousands of lives lost from automobile accidents or heart disease. Our extensive training as medical professionals enables us to weigh the risks and benefits of treatment. The identifiable victim effect refers to our tendency to become moved more strongly by the experience of single identifiable victims than by statistics on large numbers of affected individuals. The chapter utilizes salience in developing public health cancer prevention strategies. The prospect of developing skin cancer, which usually occurs decades after using tanning beds, may not be salient enough for young tanning bed users. Young people may feel that the short-term benefit of a tan outweighs the long-term risks of skin cancer.