Current Events > Why do people get more upset by murder than disease?

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Saw this post on reddit and made me think

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/s2at5h/covid19_accounted_for_more_lineofduty_police/

Is there something particularly bad about being killed by another person rather than by disease? Especially in the case of our current pandemic, which kills far more people than violence. Even for police, as the graph shows, which is meant to be a more dangerous job that puts you in the line of fire

Why would someone hear that covid is the top killer of police, for example, and not make a big fuss about it? Meanwhile a lot of people would be upset if hundreds of police were killed by criminals every year

Mainly I ask cause, to me, death is death. I wouldn't br more upset if someone I loved was shot vs being killed by covid. Disease kills more people than anything else and is just as preventable as violence, so what gives?

Because like it or not, disease is natural. A murder is not.

Disease is just doing what it exists to do. Murder is abnormal.

Natural doesn't seem to make it ok to me. I'd be as upset if a loved one got killed by like a bear or lion as I would be if a person did it

Because murder is malicious and intentional, while diseases are not

Zaqiel : Angel Of Purity

Zaqiel was a valuable teacher in the realm of medicine, but his demeanor made him deeply feared. When he talked about living things, it was clear that he didn't see them for what they were, but rather what they were made of. Blood and bone. Water and salt. In his mind, the lives of humans were just a pattern of actions. People were nothing more than expanding collection of interactions. Consumption. Digestion. Expulsion. All of it was both simplistic and meaningless.

When Zaqiel's actions resulted in death, there was no remorse. To him, there was no consequential difference between murder and the harvest of a stalk of wheat.

if it's just a matter of intent being more important than result, then I can understand that even if I don't agree with it. I guess I just don't care about intent too much, but I can accept if a lot of people do. was hoping there was something more to it

The way I see it, disease is a slower death. With many diseases, you can learn about it months, or years, before it kills that person. So friends and family members have time to come to terms with it.

With murder, it's sudden and unexpected. The grieving process is different. Plus, there's that thought of, "if not for this person, my loved one would still be alive."

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

Zaqiel : Angel Of Purity

Zaqiel was a valuable teacher in the realm of medicine, but his demeanor made him deeply feared. When he talked about living things, it was clear that he didn't see them for what they were, but rather what they were made of. Blood and bone. Water and salt. In his mind, the lives of humans were just a pattern of actions. People were nothing more than expanding collection of interactions. Consumption. Digestion. Expulsion. All of it was both simplistic and meaningless.

When Zaqiel's actions resulted in death, there was no remorse. To him, there was no consequential difference between murder and the harvest of a stalk of wheat.

I mean seriously.

Is this a serious question TC?

It's a cognitive bias. I don't remember the name of the specific bias, but it has to do with how upsetting and scary getting murdered is compared to a disease that is slower to kill.

Damn_Underscore posted...

I mean seriously.

Is this a serious question TC?

yes i'm serious. death is death to me. and in my experience, the outcome has been the same. families I know are equally destroyed whether their loved ones were killed by disease, violence or accidents. I guess a way of putting what I mean into a different context is - if someone had attacked us and killed even a fraction of the number of people covid has, we would be on the warpath. but with covid, you have a large number of people who simply don't give a shit. it's very strange to me

Crescente posted...

It's a cognitive bias. I don't remember the name of the specific bias, but it has to do with how upsetting and scary getting murdered is compared to a disease that is slower to kill.

I think I know what you're talking about. maybe that's what I'm looking for. I forgot where I saw that

I think I found it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salience_(neuroscience)#Salience_bias

Crescente posted...

I think I found it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salience_(neuroscience)#Salience_bias

oh, cool. thank you

Are you implying it its wrong to believe that murder is one of of not the worst possible offenses?

Like theres a reason why people get mote upset over murder than over someone being killed on an animal attack. It doesnt mean that both arent terrible.

Damn_Underscore posted...

Are you implying it its wrong to believe that murder is one of of not the worst possible offenses?

Like theres a reason why people get mote upset over murder than over someone being killed on an animal attack. It doesnt mean that both arent terrible.

murder is very bad. I'm saying all death is bad but I was wondering why people get more upset about hearing about a murder but hearing droves of people die from covid is like an "oh well" moment for a lot of people. I think it's very bad that close to a million people have died in the US alone from this preventable disease. but there's a good portion of people that simply don't care at all, yet many of them would be outraged by violence. the salience bias that Crescente posted explains it

I personally have not been desensitized to covid deaths. I get a sinking feeling hearing about it, same way I do when I hear about murder stories. I feel very bad for people that have lost loved ones to it

All of these answers are incorrect.

People get upset over things they understand

Murder is easy to understand

complex immunology is not

Same reason why no one cares about quantum mechanics telling us about the many worlds interpretation or the technological implications of quantum entanglement. It's not fun or easy to think about how we are all just waves that generate enough energy to become the particles that make up our atomic structure. From a QM standpoint, neither murder nor pandemics matter

Because with murder, theres a murderer and its really easy to hate those guys

ThyCorndog posted...

Disease kills more people than anything else and is just as preventable as violence

citation needed tbh

eston posted...

Because murder is malicious and intentional, while diseases are not

Diseases can absolutely be malicious and intentional.

Cuz humans= dumb