VALUE OF DIFFERENT HUMAN

LIVES:
A systematic review

-Pavani Chopra
Background
Human decision making is a
complex phenomenon which can
be guided by various factors
ranging from culture, situations,
framings, and emotions.
I have tried to analyse how I have tried different factors which
humans make decisions in influence human choice through
trade-off situations of life the method of a systematic review.
and death.
Relevance
The systematic review examines examples of varied moral dilemmas & social dilemmas faced by technology for prioritizing different
human lives and ethical dilemmas during natural disasters.

The paper tried to understand the policy guidelines given by international organizations which protect individuals during humanitarian
crisis.

The era demands for rational decision making for the benefit of the society from the lens of technology & policy.

Technological shift has been observed from self-driving cars to autonomous vehicles. While field of medicine also faces dilemmas often
especially when resources are limited such as during the outbreak of covid.
Research Questions

How do humans make decisions in

trade-off situations of life and death?

2
Why does the worth of human life vary?
Methodology
Weaved a systematic
review with concrete
findings
Created an excel to
identify compile
research papers and
themes
Compiled papers to
analyze the research
question from lens of
psychology and policy

Picked 21 relevant
research papers
Searched databases –
Google Scholar,
PubMed, Article Plus,
PsycArticles, PsycInfo
Identify the research
question(s)
Parameters Used for Analysis
Psychology Policy Guidelines

Moral Dilemmas in Technological & Cultural Clashes

Fluctuating Value of Human Life in Decision-making in Medicine

Sacrificial Dilemmas

Value of Human Life Based on Age Prioritisation during Humanitarian Crisis

Framings: A Psychological Perspective

Cultural Preferences can influence AI Inventions
Differences in cultural preferences for different human lives.

Pivotal for lawmakers and AI inventions.

Example – the sparing of younger lives is much more important in Southern countries (Latin American countries of Central and South
America) compared to Eastern Countries (Japan and Taiwan).

Informed decision making for inventions like autonomous vehicles.

Japan’s case is particularly interesting. It is a “super ageing society” holds a lot of importance on the respect for the elderly.

‘Confucianism’ widespread philosophy. It stresses the cultural importance of elders, making rational decision-making conflicting.

Utilitarian decision making is one of the methods adopted for programming vehicles. Maximizing saving the number of lives
quantitatively. Conflict arises when they could end up killing their own passengers (Greene, 2016).

Cultural intricacies crucial when AI solves the problem of self-driving cars.

Tragic Trade-offs
Sacred value measurements are called tragic trade-offs.

Especially to desperate times in which the question is about which human life should be prioritized and resources are scarce.

Many people were willing to prioritize more beneficial people to the society but do not want to state it as a formal rule (Caviola, Schubert &
Mogensen, 2020). Example, a skilled surgeon v/s an unemployed person

Example -crying baby dilemma. During war time when soldiers are looking to kill the mother and her fellow villagers to kill, and the baby
starts crying. What will the mother choose to do?

Moral Cognition perspective - Individuals who rely more on controlled cognition and less on intuition are more likely to produce more
utilitarian decisions and responses (Cushman and Greene, 2011).
Medical Decision Making
Hurricane Katrina resources were scarce and time was limited.

Pulmonologist John Thiele injected several category-three patients with morphine.

Results state that the real-world dilemmas are more concrete constructs making people break off the moral taboos under one-off decision
situations (Eyal & Liberman, 2012; FeldmanHall et al., 2012; Trope & Liberman, 2010).

The 4 main principles of medical literature are – 1) Treating patients equally 2) Maximizing social benefit 3) Prioritizing the worth-off 4)
Maximizing individual benefits.

Dr. Emanuel (2020), chairman for the department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Focused utilitarian
principles favouring the best prospects of longest remaining life.
Medical Decision Making
Death of Older
Death of Children
People

Grieve is more demostrated in

"Granny Dumping" people
Japanese folktale and they
are more willing to sacrifice
have more years to live and
elderly based on Age
chance for "fair innings"

Conflict between life of infant

and older children (older
They are seen with more
children more connections
pityful eyes
and more investment made
on them)
Framings
Example 1 - participants asked to choose between two options for the treatment of 600 people who were affected with a fatal disease.

The first option had probability which could result in the death of 400 people. If they chose the second option it had a 66% chance that
could result in death of everyone and 33% possibility that nobody would die.

The results of the study proved 72% people chose positive framing, which was saving the life of 200 people.

Example 2 - The trolley problem also has two versions to it, the “switch” case dilemma and the “push” case dilemma

People find hitting the switch more acceptable than the push case.

Reason- doing harm in an up-close and personal manner is a result of emotional aversion as both are emotional and cognitive systems
are involved while making this decision.
Humanitarian guidelines during crisis
The policy guidelines by US AID, UNICEF mention assistance-based needs to the vulnerable population during disasters because of their
age, gender, or any other factors.

A special mention for children and vulnerable populations.

The document states “UNICEF requires clear safeguards when processing personal data, particularly when children or vulnerable people
are concerned, to safeguard their best interests. All personal data processing by UNICEF is governed by internal and interagency rules”
(UNICEF, 2020).

Making children entitled for special services and vulnerable people like people with disabilities.

When titanic struck the iceberg, popular sating - women and children first?

Ed Galea, specialist in evacuation modeling procedures at the University of Greenwich. He stated, “women and children first is a
Hollywood notion and there are no international regulations who would be evacuated first.”
Implications
The research adopts the perspective of psychology and policy to weave the findings dwelling on concrete examples.

Can help in more informed decision-making in future and guiding major policy decisions. Keeping in view social and ethical dilemmas.

Help in formulating policies relating to AI inventions and medical policies.

Gives an overview of the human decision-making process and unpacks nuances leading to decisions.

Brings out facts about human psychology and nature which guides decisions.
References (1/2)
Birchley, G. (2021). The theorisation of ‘best interests’ in bioethical accounts of decision-making. BMC medical ethics, 22(1), 1-18.
Caviola, L., Schubert, S., & Mogensen, A. (2021). Should you save the more useful? The effect of generality on moral judgments about rescue
and indirect effects. Cognition, 206, 104501.
Cohen, D. J., Cromley, A. R., Freda, K. E., & White, M. (2021). Psychological value theory: The psychological value of human lives and economic
goods. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
Conway, P., Goldstein-Greenwood, J., Polacek, D., & Greene, J. D. (2018). Sacrificial utilitarian judgments do reflect concern for the greater
good: Clarification via process dissociation and the judgments of philosophers. Cognition, 179, 241-265.
Cushman, F. (2013). Action, outcome, and value: A dual-system framework for morality. Personality and social psychology review, 17(3), 273-
292.
Curtis,P. 2012, January 16. Costa Concordia: are women still prioritised over men in evacuation procedures?. The Guardian. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/jan/16/costa-concordia-women
Cushman, F., Murray, D., Gordon-McKeon, S., Wharton, S., & Greene, J. D. (2012). Judgment before principle: engagement of the frontoparietal
control network in condemning harms of omission. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 7(8), 888-895.
Emanuel, E. J., Persad, G., Upshur, R., Thome, B., Parker, M., Glickman, A., ... & Phillips, J. P. (2020). Fair allocation of scarce medical
resources in the time of Covid-19. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(21), 2049-2055.
Erlandsson, A. (2021). Helping dilemmas: Decision-making when one cannot help everyone in need.
Erlandsson, A., Lindkvist, A., Lundqvist, K., Andersson, P. A., Dickert, S., Slovic, P., & Vastfjall, D. (2020). Moral preferences in helping dilemmas
expressed by matching and forced choice. Judgment and decision making.
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Goodwin, G. P., & Landy, J. F. (2014). Valuing different human lives. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 778.
Greene, J. D. (2016). Our driverless dilemma. Science, 352(6293), 1514-1515.
Huseynov, S., Palma, M. A., & Nayga Jr, R. M. (2020). General public preferences for allocating scarce medical resources during COVID-
19. Frontiers in public health, 928.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1981). The simulation heuristic. Stanford Univ CA Dept of Psychology.
Kawai, N., Kubo, K., & Kubo‐Kawai, N. (2014). “Granny dumping”: Acceptability of sacrificing the elderly in a simulated moral dilemma. Japanese
Psychological Research, 56(3), 254-262.
Loewenstein, G., Rick, S., & Cohen, J. D. (2008). Neuroeconomics. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 59, 647-672.
Spälti, A. K., Brandt, M., & Zeelenberg, M. (2019). The Effects of Decision Time on Perceptions of Decisions and Decision Makers in (Moral)
Trade-Off Scenarios.
Rangel, A., Camerer, C., & Montague, P. R. (2008). A framework for studying the neurobiology of value-based decision making. Nature reviews
neuroscience, 9(7), 545-556.
United Nations. 2022, February 24. Ukraine Crisis: Protecting civilians ‘Priority Number One’; Guterres releases $20M for humanitarian support.
UN News. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1112662
UNICEF. (2020). Core Commitments For Children in Humanitarian Action. UNICEF. Retrieved from
US AID. (2015). Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance Policy for Humanitarian Action.