Somebody Else's Problem

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Somebody Else's Problem (also known as Someone else's problem or SEP) is an effect that causes people to ignore matters which are generally important to a group but may not seem specifically important to the individual. Author Douglas Adams description of the effect, which he ascribed to a physical "SEP field", has helped to make it a generally recognised phenomenon. The label is now widely used to focus public attention on matters that may have been overlooked. It is also used more trivially to indicate factors that are "out of scope" in the current context.^[1]

1 SEP and Psychology
2 Somebody Else's Problem field
3 Cultural importance of Somebody Else's Problem
4 Notes

[edit] SEP and Psychology

Richard Dawkins argued in The Selfish Gene that organisms can act altruistically (against their individual interests) to help related organisms reproduce. In this sense recognition of possible threats to the group is an important survival trait.

Various areas of Psychology and Philosophy of perception are concerned with the reasons why individuals often ignore such matters. Optimism bias tends to reduce the subjective importance of some matters. Where multiple individuals personally experience the same stimulus, diffusion of responsibility may release individuals from the need to act, and if no-one from the group is seen to act, each individual may be further inhibited by conformity. On a wider basis, all members of society are exposed to so many messages about pressing matters of concern that Information overload may play a part. There may also be a tendency to argue that "I can't fix this problem, so I need do nothing to reduce it" (a perfect solution fallacy).

[edit] Somebody Else's Problem field

Starship Bistromath apparently invisible to the crowd at Lord's Cricket Ground, London

Douglas Adams has his character Ford Prefect describe Somebody Else's Problem in Life, the Universe and Everything, the third book of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series:

“

An SEP is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's problem.... The brain just edits it out, it's like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won't see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye.

”

In this case, "a small upended Italian bistro" with "guidance fins, rocket engines and escape hatches" has been hidden by the "Someone Else's Problem field" which "can be run for over a hundred years on a single torch battery":

“

This is because it relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain.

”

The book says that the SEP field is derived from Bistromathics and in particular the concept of an imaginary number called a "recipriversexcluson" whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself. Modern science has been slow to investigate this further, though Professor John Wettlaufer (of Yale University) has apparently observed that it is very important for physicists working outside the mainstream "to have a genuine interest in learning about someone else's problem". However, he admitted that "not many people want to do this".^[2]

[edit] Cultural importance of Somebody Else's Problem

The "Somebody Else's Problem" label is now in widespread use, perhaps due to the popularity of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, and has become a useful tool for presenting and analysing situations.

[edit] Politics and Economics

French president Nicolas Sarkozy warned the U.S. Congress that "The [decline of the] dollar cannot remain someone else's problem. If we are not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be victims."^[3]

The New York Times said that when the Shah of Iran was exiled in 1979 he become "someone else's problem" from the point of view of President Carter's administration.^[4]

[edit] Environment and Public Protection

When trying to "alert the public to the risk of low-probability, high-consequence disasters such as severe floods?... we may be asking the public to act on someone else's problem".^[5]

British politician Peter Ainsworth acknowledges that "climate change can seem huge, complex, remote and someone else's problem."^[6]

The The Hundred Year Lie book describes the public myth that food and medicine "toxicity health issues are 'someone else's problem'".

"Litter, however spread, seems to be particularly sensitive to the effects of the SEP Field; once the empty cigarette carton is discarded it is immediately enveloped in the field and disappears! The pop bottle, also no longer desired, immediately pops out of sight; sweet wrappers, fast food containers ... all these things, and many more besides, all of them disappear once they have been discarded by their owners: all of this waste material becomes the pervue of "someone else" and is therefore invisible."^[7]

Douglas Adams was himself concerned about such failures to recognise the need for action, and with Mark Carwardine published the book Last Chance to See which highlighted endangered animal species.

[edit] Technology

The sub-goals of programmers working on a shared artefact "can be deferred to the degree that they become what is known amongst professional programmers as an "S.E.P." - somebody else's problem."^[8]

Unix became popular because when it was developed at Bell Labs "profits were somebody else's problem" so there was no reason not to share the source code with universities.^[9]