The gap between what people say they’d do and what they actually do is an interesting topic.
However, in the example chosen here (starving people in third-world countries), there are too many other reasons for which people wouldn’t make the choice to save lives, many of which have been given by other commenters.
And I expect that if you mounted a hypothetical scenario that was closer to the actual starving people one, including the factors like the impact that aid might have on the local economy, the overpopulation problems, etc. - then I expect that much less people would say that they’d make great sacrifices to save lives (much less than would in the ten-hostages scenario, at least). There would probably still be a gap between what people say they’d do, and what they actually do, but it wouldn’t be as dramatic.
The gap between what people say they’d do and what they actually do is an interesting topic.
However, in the example chosen here (starving people in third-world countries), there are too many other reasons for which people wouldn’t make the choice to save lives, many of which have been given by other commenters.
And I expect that if you mounted a hypothetical scenario that was closer to the actual starving people one, including the factors like the impact that aid might have on the local economy, the overpopulation problems, etc. - then I expect that much less people would say that they’d make great sacrifices to save lives (much less than would in the ten-hostages scenario, at least). There would probably still be a gap between what people say they’d do, and what they actually do, but it wouldn’t be as dramatic.