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Name: Risk
Rating: 4.3 (31 reviews)
Author: Dan Gardner

Dan Gardner

The Science and Politics of Fear

4.3 (31 ratings)

20 mins

Brief summary

"Risk" by Dan Gardner explores how our brains perceive and react to risk, and how this can lead to faulty decision-making. Using real-world examples, Gardner shows how embracing rationality over emotion can help us make better choices and navigate an uncertain world.

Topics

Manipulation

Table of Contents

Risk
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Conquer your fears and those who try to exploit them.

For years now, we’ve been piecing together a more complex picture of the brain and how it works. And psychologists, neuroscientists and other great thinkers have found that – when it comes to our emotions and decision-making processes – we’re not always thinking the way we think we are.

These blinks apply our generation’s advanced understanding of the brain to the concept of fear. This is especially pertinent today, when it seems like there’s a particularly large number of things to be afraid of.

But you’ll see that the human brain isn’t so good at judging fear. Once you know that – and the ways other people take advantage of it – you’ll realize the emotions you should feel in the twenty-first century are gratitude and relief. After all, we’re living in one of the least frightening times ever!

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how likely you are to die in a terrorist attack;
how high dolphins can count; and
how pharmaceutical companies get us to buy medicine we don’t need.

Modern society is chock-full of false fears.

We’re constantly being told that the world is under threat, whether it’s from terrorism, climate change or global epidemics. It seems we live in dangerous times. But do we?

We currently live in a so-called risk society. Ulrich Beck coined the term in 1986 to describe societies in which there’s a high sensitivity to risk, whether it’s cancer or nuclear war. The United States and Europe are both good examples.

Beck noticed that risk societies were spreading throughout the world, especially as people grew more afraid of technological advancements.

As technology improved, our news outlets became filled with stories intended to scare us. In fact, a study conducted by Eurobarometer in 2006 found that 50 percent of Europeans believed their cell phones were a threat to their health. Meanwhile, stories of terrorism, cancer, obesity and gluten intolerance have taken over our media.

Most of these frightening stories are exaggerated, however. Frequently people don’t even understand the things they’re afraid of, like cancer.

In a 2007 Oxford study, researchers asked women at what age they thought they were most likely to develop breast cancer. Twenty percent said it was their fifties, and over half said that age wasn’t even a factor.

Only 0.7 percent knew the real answer: breast cancer is most common among women over the age of 80. Age is the single greatest determinant of breast cancer, not cell phones or anything else.

And the only thing that rivals many people’s fear of cancer is their fear of terrorism, despite the fact that, statistically speaking, it’s very unlikely that you’ll die in a terrorist attack. It would be much more logical to fear the flu: 36,000 Americans die every year due to flu-related complications.

Our misconceptions about risk stem from the way our brains are hardwired.

Our brains are ancient, so when it comes to risk perception, it’s like using really outdated hardware to run the latest and most sophisticated software.

Human brains underwent a big change in the Stone Age. About 500,000 years ago, they grew from 650 cubic centimeters to 1,200 cubic centimeters. That’s only a slightly smaller than our current brain size of 1,400 cubic centimeters.

There are two cognitive systems in our brain, and they process risk differently.

Our brains play some funny tricks on us. Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for illuminating one of them: we have two distinct brain systems that help us reason, and they produce different results!

The first is called System 1 or gut. It runs quickly and without your being conscious of it. You’re using System 1 when you intuitively feel something is right or wrong without knowing why.

Our gut is guided by two rules that can push us into making illogical decisions.

Our System 1 gut reactions often lead us to make rash decisions because they rely on heuristics. Heuristics are basically cognitive shortcuts that tell us what to do.

The Rule of Typical Things is an example of this. It states that when a question contains information we find typical, our intuition takes over when we formulate an answer.

Our brains intuitively understand anecdotal evidence better than hard data.

“Breast implants cause cancer – I saw it on TV!” Statements or anecdotes like this are more powerful than you might think. Anecdotes are little stories about other people that we use to affirm certain beliefs or feelings.

Powerful anecdotes spread in 1994 when the American media ran several stories about women who had apparently developed connective-tissue diseases because of their silicone breast implants.

Companies and government know how to manipulate us with fear.

Our faulty judgments have serious consequences. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry and politicians use this to their advantage.

Pharmaceutical companies regularly use fear to manipulate us. Indeed, disease mongering is an accepted part of the industry. “Disease mongering” means that pharmaceutical companies don’t market pills to people who need them; instead, they try to convince customers that something is wrong with them, and it can be cured with a pill.

Faulty risk perception affects our understanding of crime.

Franklin D. Roosevelt made a good point when he said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Just look at the media coverage of crime.

The most newsworthy stories aren’t the ones that are most prevalent in society. The media is obsessed with crime. Crime gets people’s attention; a decrease in crime does not.

Terrorism is one of our biggest fears but it’s far less of a threat than we think.

Since September 11, 2001, the world has been obsessed with terrorism. People fear it now more than ever, despite the fact that terrorist attacks have decreased!

In 2002, Gallup issued the results of a poll measuring the fear of terrorism in the United States. 52 percent of those polled said it was “very” or “somewhat” likely that another terrorist attack would occur within the next several weeks. That was a big drop from five months earlier when the figure was 85 percent.

Fearmongering makes us forget that we’re living in humanity’s most prosperous time.

Despite what we hear, ours are the best days humanity has ever seen.

All over the world, people now live longer than ever before. Countries use life expectancy to measure their wealth and level of development. The more access to health care and other public resources people have, the longer they live.

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What is Risk about?

We live in a society that pushes us to fear what’s out there. Risk (2008) delves into the psychological and sociological reasons why fear is so deeply rooted in modern times, and why the world isn’t really as bad as we’re made to think it is.

Best quote from Risk

The heart has its reasons for which reason knows nothing of. – Blaise Pascal

—Dan Gardner

Who should read Risk?

Students of psychology, sociology or politics
Anyone interested in the media

About the Author

Dan Gardner is a former senior policy advisor and writer for the Ottawa Citizen. He’s won numerous awards for his writing, including the Amnesty International Media Award.

Categories with Risk

Society & Culture Psychology

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