Oct. 15, 2001 — Americans are possibly more afraid than they
have ever been. Afraid enough to buy gas masks and guns, afraid
enough to see the most innocuous events as sinister and
threatening, even afraid enough to treat neighbors as the enemy
if they don’t look right. As Franklin Roosevelt said of the
Depression in his first inaugural address, “the only thing we
have to fear, is fear itself.” So it may be useful to understand
the science that explains the roots of fear. The human species
tends to perceive risks within certain patterns. We’re all
afraid of similar things, for similar reasons. The field of
science that studies these patterns is called “risk perception.”
Researchers like Paul Slovic, Baruch Fischoff, Amos Tversky,
Daniel Kahneman and others have identified roughly two dozen
risk-perception factors — characteristics of risks that make us
more, or less, afraid. These are the subconscious tools we use
to “decide” what to be afraid of and how afraid to be. These
tools developed over evolutionary t