Victims, Agents, and Outrage

Abstract

The concept of outrage has been popularized by Peter Sandman as a way to explain public reactions to risk. The concept has captured the imagination of policy makers as an explanation for why there is public pressure to remedy relatively low risks while greater risks go ignored. But the concept remains, for many, synonymous with irrationality. This paper lays out a framework for better understanding outrage. Holding the level of risk constant, I concentrate on three other variables: (1) the rights of the victims — i. e., those on whom the risk is imposed; (2) the responsibilities of the agents — i. e., the individuals or groups who cause, contribute to, or assume a role of responsibility relative to the risk; and (3) the level of risk management — i. e., the extent to which these responsibilities are fulfilled. The resulting framework helps to explain why outrage in the face of low risk cannot be automatically dismissed as mere irrationality.