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October 3, 2025Open Access

The Paradox of Doom: Acknowledging Extinction Risk Reduces the Incentive to Prevent It

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Authors

JGJakub GrowiecKPKlaus Prettner

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Overview

Analysis shows that recognizing extinction risk decreases investment incentives in humanity, highlighting the paradox.

Key Points

  • Increased extinction risk leads to greater impatience among individuals, reducing investment in future safety.
  • The study differentiates between human extinction risk and individual mortality risk, affecting people's behavior.
  • Using a framework of altruism and evolutionary perspectives, the findings clarify contradictions in risk perceptions.
  • Understanding this paradox supports the need for more effective strategies to tackle climate change and other risks.

Cite This Study

Growiec et al. (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/68e02f46f0e39f13e7fa2d3chttps://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2509.04855
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1Risk, Non-Identity, and Extinction2024 · 1 citations
  2. 2Should Longtermists Recommend Hastening Extinction Rather Than Delaying It?2024 · 8 citations
  3. 3Lay beliefs about the badness, likelihood, and importance of human extinction2026
  4. 4Why prevent human extinction?2024 · 4 citations
  5. 5People Make Suboptimal Decisions about Existential Risks2024 · 1 citations