I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of images this week.  The sight of George Floyd on the ground with a knee on his neck will forever haunt me, as it does a nation.  Nothing captured my heart regarding global warming like the image of a starving polar bear in an article posted on Earth Day.  While statistics and charts actually relay more information, they just can’t move us the way an image can.  As it is said, a picture is worth a thousand words.  But what is it that makes an image so effectively grab our hearts and our imagination?

We are very visual beings, in fact a large percentage of our brain is dedicated to visual processing.  Images draw our attention and we process images so quickly, we’re not even consciously aware of it most of the time.  When we see a picture we can recognize a familiar object within 100 milliseconds and we can recognize a face within 380 milliseconds.  Our brains are wired to react to images, as quick processing of visual information would have benefited our ancestors in gathering food and hunting or providing information about a threat or danger.  Images that evoke emotions are given high priority in our central nervous system as a way of avoiding danger or tending to loved ones, both critical for survival.

In studying our emotional responses to images, psychologists have discovered a phenomena that is particularly powerful in capturing our attention and our empathy.  It is called the “identifiable victim effect,” and refers to research showing that we humans respond most intensely to images of an individual victim.  It is explained that in order to feel the tragedy, we must identify with an individual person (or even animal) experiencing it.  In doing so, it becomes personal.  There is a saying that one death is a tragedy, one million deaths is a statistic.  According to psychologist Paul Slovic, “The mind is very much geared to respond to a single person in need – whether it’s ourselves or a single person in front of us.”  In one study, Slovic and his collaborators put volunteers in an MRI scanner and watched how they made decisions about donating money to orphans in need.  They found that subjects chose to donate much more when they saw a photograph of a particular child than if they were presented with names.  The researchers found the extra generosity was attributable to increased activity in the nucleus accumbens, a brain area associated with pleasure and reward.  They concluded that images have a special power to generate the identifiable victim effect by triggering arousal in the brain.

History shows many examples of this effect.  Certain photographs have made a difference in changing people’s attitudes and behaviors in historic ways.  An image of a nine year old Vietnamese girl running after being burned by a napalm attack is credited with changing public opinion that helped to end the Vietnam War.  Another example is the photo of a Syrian boy whose body had washed up on a beach that captured the world’s attention to focus on the Syrian refugee crisis.  The Obama Administration began to protect African lions under the American Endangered Species Act when images of the lion “Cecil” were posted after being killed by an American hunter. The commonality of these photographs and others like them are that they show an individual victim.  In some way, in viewing individuals, we are able to see them in their vulnerability and are moved.  We are more likely to experience emotions when we focus on a single tragedy than when we feel overwhelmed by a large mass of people.

As we view body camera images from police officers involved in shootings and cell phone images taken by bystanders, we can now be witnesses to what used to happen in private.  These images not only illicit emotional outcry but can serve to bring accountability if we use them for justice.  Images are a way of showing the world what happened and preserving the story in its rawness.  With that, images are powerful agents of change.  And with any tool of such great power, we need to use them carefully.  Images can mislead if not given the appropriate context or can exploit subjects by those who own the power of the image. So when our hearts are opened by an image, we need to also use our heads.  Images can provide emotional motivation, but it’s the thoughtful commitment to action in response to our emotional reaction that creates lasting substantial change.