I appreciated David Myers' thoughtful piece on fear of flying (at www.davidmyers.org/fears). But I've got some queries for him, especially in view of his header "some facts about fears".
It's about the facts. I don't question his statistics. However, I do wonder if they're the right ones. In particular, he notes that "National Safety Council data reveal that in the last half of the 1990s Americans were, mile for mile, 37 times more likely to die in a vehicle crash than on a commercial flight". That certainly suggests it's irrational to fear flying but not driving. But it seems to me that the statistic is biased in favour of flying because flying really laps the miles, unlike pokey driving. Instead, what really concerns us is the risk per hour spent in the activity. As we probably spend many more hours in our cars than in the air, that might go some distance to whittling the difference down. So how about it, Dave? What is the risk of death in your car compared with death in an airplane per hour doing it? I find it curious that the only comparison we ever see is "mile for mile". Put another way, would you prefer to choose less death per mile travelled (km up here, of course) or less death per time spent alive? The second point is that it may not be a fact that air travel is down due to an increase in fear. True, people fear flying (44% even before September 11, David tells us Gallup reports). And certainly some will dread it even more now. But how much more? It seems to me that the downturn in the economy may be a more significant factor. When the stock market was booming, companies were busting out all over, merging here and acquiring there, all around the world. You can't make big deals by telephone, so life was sweet for the airlines, especially as the big boys don't fly economy. That was then. No one's jetting to high-level meetings any more, because no one's doing any business, and the companies are too broke to afford the airfare anyway. Further, there are massive layoffs, and that means no one can afford Cancun or Whistler any more. So my thesis is that we're not foregoing flying from fear but from failing finances. -Stephen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
