From the blog ‘Predictably Irrational’ by Dan Ariely, behavioral scientist at M.I.T. and author of ‘Predictably Irrational‘, here’s a personal account of the identifiable victim effect:

The story described a 911 call in which the dispatcher could hear Mrs. Schneider being slapped and her say, “Mark, you hit me. I’m bleeding.” The dispatcher heard a second slap noise and another call for help. The officer who arrived two minutes later and saw Mrs Schneider, covered in blood, in her front yard with her son Mark hitting her on the head with wooden baseball bat. The police officer drew his pistol and ordered Mark to stop, but Mark struck his mother in the head again and again until the officer was able to use his Taser and Mark dropped to the ground. Mrs, Schneider was rushed to Hartford Hospital for treatment of two broken forearms and a skull fracture, while Mark was taken to the police headquarters, and from there to the psychiatric unit at the local Hospital.
I was deeply saddened after reading these reports, but the story that I could not get out of my head for the next few days, was not the large devastation of Hurricane Ike, it was the tragedy of the Schneider family.

For the whole story, see: The Identifiable Victim Effect in ActionVictims whose stories we know are more likely to elicit sympathy, 10/1/2008

ChildFund (formerly ‘Christian Childrens Fund’) has been running variations of these ads on American television since the 1980s.  They are very, very effective: