caa a22 4500 445855002 CHVBK 20180317145425.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110301xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10640-010-9449-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10640-010-9449-3 Overreaction to Fearsome Risks [Elektronische Daten] [Cass Sunstein, Richard Zeckhauser] When risks threaten, cognitive mechanisms bias people toward action or inaction. Fearsome risks are highly available. The availability bias tells us that this leads people to overestimate their frequency. Therefore, they also overreact to curtail the likelihood or consequences of such risks. More generally, fear can paralyze efforts to think clearly about risks. We draw on a range of environmental risks to show the following: (1) Fear leads us to neglect probability of occurrence; (2) As fearsome environmental risks are usually imposed by others (as externalities), indignation stirs excess reaction; (3) We often misperceive or miscalculate such risks. Two experiments demonstrate probability neglect when fearsome risks arise: (a) willingness-to-pay to eliminate the cancer risk from arsenic in water (described in vivid terms) did not vary despite a 10-fold variation in risk; (b) the willingness-to-accept price for a painful but non dangerous electric shock did not vary between a 1 and 100% chance. Possible explanations relate to the role of the amygdala in impairing cognitive brain function. Government and the law, both made by mortals and both responding to public pressures, similarly neglect probabilities for fearsome risks. Examples relating to shark attacks, Love Canal, alar and terrorism are discussed. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2011 Action bias nationallicence Availability bias nationallicence Biased assessment nationallicence Risk regulation nationallicence Risk perception nationallicence Sunstein Cass Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC, USA aut Zeckhauser Richard Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Mailbox 41, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA aut Environmental and Resource Economics Springer Netherlands 48/3(2011-03-01), 435-449 0924-6460 48:3<435 2011 48 10640 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-010-9449-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-010-9449-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sunstein Cass Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Zeckhauser Richard Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Mailbox 41, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Environmental and Resource Economics Springer Netherlands 48/3(2011-03-01), 435-449 0924-6460 48:3<435 2011 48 10640 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer