Because a person who hears a statistic thinks, “That’s sad.” But a person who hears a survivor thinks, “That could be me. And if it is, I know I can survive too.”

Media and NGOs often select stories that fit a narrow, sympathetic archetype (young, innocent, visibly suffering, morally unambiguous). This marginalizes survivors whose experiences involve complex behaviors (e.g., substance use, delayed reporting, staying with an abuser). Mitigation: Actively recruit diverse narratives; avoid editing for “likeability”; explicitly discuss how trauma responses vary.