Fallacy of relative privation ("not as bad as")

Biological Parallel

Lions focus on hunting large prey (buffalo, zebra) while ignoring abundant small prey (rabbits, birds)—not because small prey aren't nutritious, but because larger threats and opportunities command attention. This attentional triage is adaptive when cognitive resources are scarce: focus on the biggest problem. The relative privation fallacy exploits this prioritization heuristic: dismissing smaller concerns because larger ones exist mirrors optimal foraging in resource-limited environments. But modern contexts allow addressing multiple problems simultaneously; ancestral zero-sum thinking persists.