empathy

You care more about one victim than a hundred.

In a 2007 study, people donated significantly more money to help a specific individual than to a statistical group of victims.

Source: Small, Loewenstein, and Slovic (2007), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

You are wired to respond to faces, not to spreadsheets.

Where this comes from

Study: Small, Loewenstein, and Slovic (2007), Journal of Risk and Uncertainty
What the check found: The core finding regarding the 'identifiable victim effect' is accurate and widely supported in behavioral economics, but the citation provided is bibliographically incorrect.
Confidence: Solid, with limits

One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.