This is what's known as the "Identifiable victim effect", where something abstract and vague like "killed a million people" doesn't instill as much empathy and shock in a person as something close to their proximity like "killed a single child living down the street." There are interesting readings on this particular phenomenon, mainly over on Wikipedia and under TV Tropes' "A Million is a Statistic" page.
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Nedhitis
Jan 20, 2020 at 02:04PM EST
SirSorgum
Jan 20, 2020 at 09:16PM EST