At the heart of every successful awareness campaign lies the human element. Statistics can inform, but stories move.
Consider the difference between these two headlines:
Psychologists call it "psychic numbing." When we hear about a large number of victims—be it from a natural disaster, a health epidemic, or violence—our empathy shuts down. We see the number as an abstraction. We cannot save 10,000 people, so we save none.
While powerful, deploying survivor stories is fraught with ethical danger.
The following case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of survivor stories and awareness campaigns:
At the heart of every successful awareness campaign lies the human element. Statistics can inform, but stories move.
Consider the difference between these two headlines:
Psychologists call it "psychic numbing." When we hear about a large number of victims—be it from a natural disaster, a health epidemic, or violence—our empathy shuts down. We see the number as an abstraction. We cannot save 10,000 people, so we save none.
While powerful, deploying survivor stories is fraught with ethical danger.
The following case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of survivor stories and awareness campaigns:
