Scope insensitivity (scope neglect)

Biological Parallel

Parent birds expend identical effort rescuing one chick or four from a collapsed nest—the rescue response activates categorically ('chicks in danger') not proportionally. Dolphins assist stranded pod-mates with similar intensity whether one or twelve need help. This scalar invariance in empathetic response produces scope insensitivity: humans pay similar amounts to save 2,000 vs 200,000 birds from oil spills, donate equally to rescue 10 or 1,000 refugees, allocate similar resources to diseases killing 5,000 vs 500,000 annually. Moral emotions evolved for small-scale kin groups where arithmetic scaling provided no fitness advantage.