Saturday, September 1, 2012

Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner

Science Current Events - Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner The content is nice quality and useful content, Which is new is that you never knew before that I know is that I even have discovered. Prior to the unique. It's now near to enter destination Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner. And the content associated with Science Current Events.

Do you know about - Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner

Science Current Events! Again, for I know. Ready to share new things that are useful. You and your friends.

According to Gardner, our misjudgments originally stem from the fact that our brains have evolved to deal, very effectively, with the sort of immediate risks that we have historically encountered as a species, say as hunter-gatherers in the African savannah. But it is this same evolution that makes our brains singularly ill-adapted to the complexities of the modern 21st Century urban jungle and causes us to make egregious mistakes.

What I said. It isn't outcome that the real about Science Current Events. You see this article for home elevators a person need to know is Science Current Events.

How is Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner

We had a good read. For the benefit of yourself. Be sure to read to the end. I want you to get good knowledge from Science Current Events.

At the heart of Gardner's explanation lies the idea that we have two separate internal systems to react to events: almost summarised as 'head' and 'gut'. 'Head', a rational, reflective, but also slow-acting system, is often overridden by 'gut', a more intuitive, fast-acting system, which bases its recommendations on factors such as precedent and recency. For example, in the case of stressful situations, 'head' barely gets a say, and if so, then often too late.

Historically, 'gut' has served us very well. The fact that we have a vivid up-to-date memory of an event (say a landslide) colours our perception of the current risk of such an event, which, by and large, highlights the more imminent current dangers.

In a society such as ours, however, where we are enduringly bombarded with - in particular - images and stories of extreme, but very rare events, that same 'gut' leads us to overestimate the significance of spectacular (but very rare) events, and conversely underestimate the significance of low-key (but tasteless and very dangerous) events.

One of the many stunning examples of the book is that this wrong perception of risk led to 1500 extra deaths (another 50% above the traditional death toll) after 9/11. After being exposed to the incessant coverage of the event, many Americans switched from air tour to road travel. This is apparent from discrete statistics, such as airline passenger numbers, road toll figures, etc. Unfortunately, when you look at the time series of road deaths in the Us, you will see a fairly flat series, except for a pronounced spike in the 12 months after 9/11, corresponding almost to 1500 excess deaths, which could have been avoided, had these and many other people not been unnecessarily scared by an extremely rare event.

Gardner does a very good job of explaining the discrete players that reinforce these irrational fears of ours, such as the media, who can only be flourishing if they yield spectacular stories, and our politicians, who are often most flourishing by stoking a given fear and then being seen to counteract the perceived danger.

What is particularly useful is the way Gardner explains how seemingly objective 'facts' or figures can often be extremely misleading. Thus, for example, the fact that some cancer rates in the West are going up stems from the fact that people are Not dying from other diseases, living longer lives, and therefore have a good opening to - finally - be afflicted with cancer.

Another stunning example of (irrational) fear is crime rates, which have, in fact, been falling across the board over the last few decades; in particular violent crime, along with crimes against children.

Gardner's book, apart from being a good and fun read, is also fundamentally very reassuring. Essentially, it demonstrates that we have never been as safe or wholesome as we are now.

I hope you will get new knowledge about Science Current Events. Where you can put to used in your life. And most significantly, your reaction is Science Current Events.Read more.. her latest blog Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner. View Related articles associated with Science Current Events. I Roll below. I even have recommended my friends to help share the Facebook Twitter Like Tweet. Can you share Book communicate of 'Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear' By Dan Gardner.


No comments:

Post a Comment