How Risky Is It, Really?

In How Risky Is It, Really?, David Ropeik discusses how the human brain determines whether a person is at risk and the methods it takes to reach that conclusion. Today, significant advances in neuroscience, economics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology lend new insight into the brain’s perception of risk and help explain why people may overreact to relatively small threats and underestimate the really big ones. According to Ropeik, these Perception Gaps – the difference between fears and actual facts – can be dangerous, and people must learn to better understand their perception of fears in order to reduce them. Ropeik outlines the various risk perception factors the brain uses in hopes that readers will be able to reduce their Perception Gaps and make smarter, safer, and healthier decisions.