Why will we pay $80 to save 2,000 birds but only $8 more to save 200,000?

Humans make weird decisions when faced with big numbers " and three other intriguing tales Alex Hern found at the SXSW technology festival in Texas

It sounds like a simple question: how much should you pay to save 2,000 birds? Everything has a cost, and for oil companies, which regularly find themselves in the position of having to clean up environmental disasters, it's useful for them to peg the amount to something which matches the public's preconceptions.