Numbers and nerves : information, emotion, and meaning in a world of data / edited by Scott Slovic, Paul Slovic.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"We live in the age of Big Data, awash in a sea of ever-expanding information--a constant deluge of facts, statistics, models, and projections. The human mind is quickly desensitized by information presented in the form of numbers, and yet many important social and environmental phenomena, ranging from genocide to global climate change, require quantitative description. The essays and interviews in Numbers and Nerves explore the quandary of our cognitive responses to quantitative information, while also offering compelling strategies for overcoming insensitivity to the meaning of such information. With contributions by journalists, literary critics, psychologists, naturalists, activists, and others, this book represents a unique convergence of psychological research, discourse analysis, and visual and narrative communication. At a time of unprecedented access to information, our society is frequently stymied in its efforts to react to the world's massive problems. Many of these problems are systemic, deeply rooted in seemingly intransigent cultural patterns and lifestyles. In order to sense the significance of these issues and begin to confront them, we must first understand the psychological tendencies that enable and restrict our processing of numerical information. Numbers and Nerves explores a wide range of psychological phenomena and communication strategies--fast and slow thinking, psychic numbing, pseudoinefficacy, the prominence effect, the asymmetry of trust, contextualized anecdotes, multifaceted mosaics of prose, and experimental digital compositions, among others--and places these in real-world contexts. In the past two decades, cognitive science has increasingly come to understand that we, as a species, think best when we allow numbers and nerves, abstract information and experiential discourse, to work together. This book provides a roadmap to guide that collaboration. It will be invaluable to scholars, educators, professional communicators, and anyone who struggles to grasp the meaning behind the numbers."-- Provided by publisher.

Print version record.

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Social and Psychological Perspectives on Sensitivity and Meaning With an introduction / Scott Slovic -- 1. More Who Die, the Less We Care: Psychic Numbing and Genocide / Daniel Vastfjall -- 2. Pseudoinefficacy and the Arithmetic of Compassion / Marcus Mayorga -- 3. Prominence Effect: Confronting the Collapse of Humanitarian Values in Foreign Policy Decisions / Paul Slovic -- 4. Age of Numbing / Greg Mitchell -- 5. Epidemic Disease as Structural Violence: An Excerpt from Never Again? Reflections on Human Values and Human Rights / Paul Farmer -- pt. II Narrative, Analytical, and Visual Strategies for Prompting Sensitivity and Meaning With an introduction / Paul Slovic -- 6. Power of One / Nicholas D. Kristof -- 7. From One to Too Many / Kenneth Helphand -- 8. Wreck of Time / Annie Dillard -- 9. Science, Eloquence, and the Asymmetry of Trust: What's at Stake in Climate Change Fiction / Scott Slovic -- 10. Healing Rwanda / Terry Tempest Williams -- 11. When Words Fail: Climate Change Activists Have Chosen a Magic Number / Bill Mckibben -- 12. Blood Root of Art / Rick Bass -- pt. III Interviews on the Communication of Numerical Information to the General Public With an introduction / Paul Slovic -- 13. Reacting to Information in a "Personal, Moral Way": An Interview with Homero and Betty Aridjis -- 14. Countering the "Anesthesia of Destruction": An Interview with Vandana Shiva -- 15. Meaning of "One Data Point": An Interview with Sandra Steingraber -- 16. Introspection, Social Transformation, and the Trans-Scalar Imaginary: An Interview with Chris Jordan -- pt. IV Postscript / Paul Slovic.

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