Analysis on the telescope effect

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16 November 2016
Analysis of the Telescope Effect
The author, Shankar Vedantam points out many inconsistencies in his authorship about the capacity of human compassion when dealing with the stark differences of how humans can feel real concern for an abandoned dog as opposed to mass genocide in a faraway country. Vedantam’s claim is that humans are biased on moral judgments about situations that are many thousands of miles away in another hemisphere of the world. This telescoping effect equips humans to react when a single entity is lost at sea over millions of genocide victims in a foreign land. The facts are that humans have blinders on when genocide occurs in a world away. Humans feel outraged when a situation occurs closer to home. This thing about the “hidden brain” is something about how humans deal with how the unconscious part of the brain reacts to bad news. Humans react to situations that are closer to home, as it is something they can control. These next paragraphs will discover how humans react to information that directly affects how they react as human beings in regards to bad news of an abandoned dog, or those monsters who believe it is acceptable to take another’s life.
Point 1
Humans are contradictory in the fact that one small dog captures the heart more people than mass genocide (Vedantam, 1). It definitely seems empathy does have a telescoping effect on human behavior. Why the dog was abandoned was not as important as the outcry it caused among the cruise passengers and all those who learned the storyline later.

Most humans are dog lovers and treat them just like family. No person who owns a dog they thought of as family would ever leave a dog on a ship that was uninhabited due to mechanical failure. This situation evolved right in front of them, and they simply could not ignore the situation. It would eat at them until the problem is resolved. It is simply because the dog was on the cruise ship, and most humans would feel it is morally wrong to leave the dog with no food and water, and someone could knowingly leave that dog behind is the stark reality most cannot live with.
Point 2
The concerns of dog lovers paid off in the end. After six weeks alone of the abandoned ship, the dog did survive. It must have found food in the form of rodents and water pooled in the tires on the deck of the ship. It is simply a trick of the unconscious mind to focus on one dog, then that million of genocide victims. Humans have empathy but find it less overwhelming to assist one dog than thousands in another far away location. The latter is on such a massive scale, most wonder what one person can actually do to alleviate what happened.
Sometimes, ignoring the larger problem is what allows most humans to live with horrendous facts of how awful reality can be. It is a feel better move that allows humans to deal with the depth of human depravity. This is called denial in the fact that most humans feel helpless in changing the situation in a worn-torn country, thousands of miles away from their particular reality.
Point 3
Life is always about what is right, and what is easy and what a human can live with, and still look in the mirror every morning and like what is seen in the mirror. Deep down humans knows that there is only so much control about animal cruelty and human depravity. This telescoping effect as defined by Vedantam (3) is a situation that no human wants to deal with. It is too awful to contemplate that someone could kill innocent humans or abandon a dog to its own devices. Would most humans do the right thing? Perhaps not, but no one really knows until confronted with this exact situation. It is easier to ignore it, than deal with the reality of the death of many innocent victims and especially when they are children. The hidden brain, as Vedantam, (2) calls it tones down the compassion meter with strangers than our own sphere of reality. It is within all humans to show compassion but only in the context of a situation, that happens closer to home and family. It is the situation in the personal location of reality that the hidden mind will control all reactions of the human decision-making.
What one human believes may not be another’s belief in the correct course of action. It is what makes humans alike and different at the same time. It is what makes the moral world go round and round, but the telescope effect allows humans to rationalize the situation into one they can live with, though not always the correct answer. That is unconscious bias. It is what ultimately makes humans, well human, and very fallible. Vedantam had it right about how the unconscious bias influences the moral decision making of all humans.
Conclusion
Most humans want to believe they know what is right and what is morally wrong. It always takes a brave human to stand against others even when they are sorely outnumbered. This is most certainly a death sentence in these countries that would condone mass genocide. History books tell the tale that genocide has happened many times in the supposedly civilized world. When these crises happen somewhere else, most humans can rationalize it away because it did not happen too close to home. The shoe is on the other foot when this happens in one’s own neck of the civilized world. Neither of these situations is the acceptable behavior of civilized humans, but it still happens. Unfortunately, humans are quite capable of ending others stay on the planet. Is it morally acceptable? One personal opinion is that it is wrong to be cruel to animals or humans in any form. Not everyone subscribes to that sense of morality. The world would be a better place if they did. People can do awful things to other human beings, but is it for the right reasons? Humans can rationalize away the parts of bad behavior, but in the end, karma has a way of righting those wrongs on judgment day. It is the ones, who think they got away with something, who will pay in the end with their own personal version of hell. If there is a supreme being, that decides the fate of all humans. This human chooses to believe that there is, and we all will face our actions or inactions eventually.
Work Cited
Vedantam, Shankar, The Hidden Brain: How Our Conscious Mind Elect Presidents, Control,
Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives. pdf 2010. Web 16 November 2016