1523 Risk Tricks

Read an interesting article the other day on how we perceive risk. Turns out we're hard-wired to be afraid of things that really aren't that threatening in a statistical sense. You know—sharks, lightning, fire—the things you hear about in the news that really don't happen all that often.
Whereas the other things that really do kill us more frequently, like heart disease and obesity, are pretty much ignored. This is because we give far more weight to fears experienced subjectively and emotionally than we do with objective and rational assessments of risk.
It's part of our evolution. Must be why I'm more afraid of a splinter than I am of a paper cut. The article's author said, "A risk perception apparatus permanently tuned to avoiding mountain lions makes it unlikely we'll ever run screaming from a plate of fatty mac n' cheese."
Likewise spiders, snakes, and mysterious slimy green stuff on the mac n' cheese.
Fears are increased with recent exposure to information. You're more afraid of death by fire if you've been watching stories of wildfires on the news rather than floating in a swimming pool. If it's cold and snowy out, you're not too concerned about global warming.
And this can be deadly. There are on average 48 airline crash deaths every year. And 30,000 automobile fatalities. That means the death toll from 9/11 was actually much greater than reported. After the images of two jetliners crashing into the Twin Towers seared itself into our collective consciousness, millions of Americans opted out of air travel during the following year.
All those cars on the road increased traffic fatalities by 1600.
I'm afraid emotions aren't very reasonable.
As one great man once put it, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
America, ya gotta love it.