Scope neglect (also known as scope insensitivity) is the cognitive bias that makes people insensitive to the size of problems. It can cause people to respond to problems in a way that's disproportionate to the problem's actual size.

Further reading

Animal Ethics (2020) Scope insensitivity: failing to appreciate the numbers of those who need our help, Animal Ethics.

Kahneman, Daniel & Amos Tversky (eds.) (2000) Choices, Values, and Frames, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 650–657.

Yudkowsky, Eliezer (2015) Scope insensitivity, in Rationality: From AI to Zombies, Berkeley: Machine Intelligence Research Institute, pp. 1453–1455.

Related entries

cognitive bias | debunking argument | expected value | rationality