Rick Steves, best known for his PBS travel shows wrote this in a recent blog.
************************** Bungled Risk Assessment and Tragic Road Trips <http://www.ricksteves.com/blog/index.cfm?fuseaction=entry&entryID=333> Having a daughter studying at Georgetown means I have a steady stream of interesting reading coming into my email box. Jackie loves studying in Washington DC. Here's an excerpt from something Jackie just sent that is thought-provoking: This is from her psychology textbook, Psychology: A Concise Introduction, Second Edition by Richard A. Griggs: "Availability in memory also plays a key role in what is termed a dread risk. A dread risk is a low-probability, high-damage event in which many people are killed at one point in time. Not only is there direct damage in the event, but there is secondary indirect damage mediated through how we psychologically react to the event. A good example is our reaction to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fearing dying in a terrorist airplane crash because the September 11 events were so prominent in our memories, we reduced our air travel and increased our automobile travel, leading to a significantly great number of fatal traffic accidents than usual. It is estimated that about 1,600 more people needlessly died in these traffic accidents (Gigerenzer, 2006). These lives could have been saved had we not reacted to the dread risk as we did. We just do not seem to realize that it is far safer to fly than to drive. National Safety Council data reveal that you are 37 times more likely to die in a vehicle accident than on a commercial flight." -- Sue Frantz <http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/> Highline Community College Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA 206.878.3710 x3404 [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director Project Syllabus <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> APA's p...@cc Committee <http://www.apa.org/ed/pcue/ptatcchome.html> --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
