Understanding people's emotions when one or multiple people die?

I think this can sometimes be the case, but certainly not always. I think when the people in on 9/11 died in the towers, our whole country thought of that situation as the ultimate tragedy. I don’t think we, as U.S. citizens look upon that horrible event as a statistic, but maybe people in other countries, who were not directly affected might, indeed see it as simply a statistic.

In the case of Amy Winehouse, there are some that see her death as a tragedy, and others (myself more inclined) to think of her death as a statistic. Meaning another young person who was given immense talent who frittered it away.

I think sometimes it has to do with our perceptions of inevitablity. When a bunch of faceless troops in the Iraq war die, it seems like a statistic. When a particular troop from a particular town dies, it is a horrible tragedy to the townsfolk. When a celebrity dies, if the celebrity was loved and seemingly doing a good job, it’s a tragedy. When a young celebrity dies, one that lived wrecklessly who abused him or herself and didn’t appreciate their talent, it looks more like a statistic.

It also matters how the person died. John Lennon was murdered. He gets to be a martyr. Amy Winehouse most likely died from a drug overdose, so she gets to be a statistic.

Michael Jackson gets to be a martyr (even though I personally believe that he was up to no good with children and was involved with a lot of skeevy behavior)

John Belshi gets to be a statistic (young, overweight, druggy comics that have died).

Charlie Sheen is on his way to becoming a statistic.

Depends on who dies. If it is a bunch of strangers, it might be a statistic. If it is a friend, or friends it is more personal.
However, some people get attached to celebrities, because they think, for some reason (that I can not figure out), that the celebrity is “speaking” to them, or because they have a vicarious identification with them. In that case, they will react as if a friend died. A little creepy, especially in the case of Any Winehouse, but there you go.

Because they feel that they know the celebrity; they feel invested in their life.

I agree with @Josie. It all depends on the relationship with one or all of the people who were killed. Generally though, most people with no relationship with anyone killed with think of the number. When some people hear about the Oslo killings (80 I think?), they can conceive of that number and therefore, perceive it as a tragedy. However, when the same person regards the Genocide in Rwanda and sees the death toll at over 800,000, this is much more difficult to comprehend. This sadly becomes a statistic to them.

It’s really the same answer for the whole thing. When someone dies, people want to know the person, or else they don’t really care. You can care abstractly, but until you actually know the person, it doesn’t become personal.

A celebrity is a person people believe they know. So it’s personal, and they grieve.

When many people die, it’s just hard to absorb to so we detach. When a person dies and we know something about them, it feels as if it’s easier to handle.

I don’t know anyone who died in the 9/11 attack, but I was shell-shocked by it.
A few celebrity deaths have left me in tears, but mostly I simply mourn their passing.

@filmfann I don’t mean to be insensitive, but why did you cry because of the celebrity deaths?

@Schroedes13 I found the assassination of John Lennon to be a marker in my life. It was the end of my youth. It was the senseless death of my favorite musician, and the inspirtation for my world view and politics. To this day that act crushes me to think on, and I cannot even talk about it with others.

1. I think that when one person dies, it’s more personal – you have more of a connection to the person that died (a family member) vs. when multiple people die, you don’t know half of them (in some cases) and it’s not personal, you’re distant from it, and it becomes a fact – how many people, the cause (etc.), something like the Holocaust.

2. When a celebrity dies, sometimes there’s more hype, a celebrity that you looked up to (Barbra Streisand, for example) is sadder, or people are nosier because it’s just “celebrity gossip”.

Make any sense?

@filmfann Thanks. I was just wondering because I’ve never felt that attachment to a celebrity.

For me, it’s a matter of processing the information. I hear about the death of one person, and I can imagine how I would feel if that one person was a friend or a member of my family. I hear about the death of 90 people and it just doesn’t compute in my brain. I understand on a basic level how tragic it is, but the emotional part of my brain just kind of shuts down because it can’t handle that kind of information. It’s hard to explain. I used to think I was a bad person because I didn’t, you know, cry or have an emotional reaction at this kind of news. But I eventually realized it’s because my brain automatically goes into a kind of numb state of shock – it’s not equipped to handle tragedy on such a large scale. So I can kind of understand the sentiment behind that quote.

However, I do think that with recent events, a lot of people care more about Amy Winehouse because they liked her music, and don’t care about the victims in Norway because it doesn’t affect them personally, which I think is just absolutely ridiculous.