Risk: The Science of Fear by Dan Gardner
Published by Virgin and out now
Blurb:
We are the safest humans who ever lived – the statistics prove it. And yet the media tells a different story with its warnings and scare stories. How is it possible that anxiety has become the stuff of daily life? In this ground-breaking, compulsively readable book, Dan Gardner shows how our flawed strategies for perceiving risk influence our lives, often with unforeseen and sometimes – tragic consequences. He throws light on our paranoia about everything from paedophiles to terrorism and reveals how the most significant threats are actually the mundane risks to which we pay little attention. Speaking to psychologists and scientists, as well as looking at the influence of the media and politicians, Gardner uncovers one of the central puzzles of our time: why are the safest people in history living in a culture of fear?
Comment:
I don’t usually post many non-fiction books but after reading This is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams I was, to say the least, a little paranoid. Risk though is a calm hand on the tiller reassuring us that we’re being a little too fearful and that what we think isn’t really that bad in reality.
Sounds like a very apt book in these scare story, misery media times.
Loading ...