So much of what we think and do about risk does not make sense. (…) In Europe, where there are more cell phones than people and sales keep climbing, a survey found that more than 50 percent of Europeans believe the dubious claims that cell phones are a serious threat to health. And then there’s the striking contrast between Europeans’ smoking habits and their aversion to foods containing genetically modified organisms. Surely one of the great riddles to be answered by science is how the same person who doesn’t think twice about lighting a Gauloise will march in the streets demanding a ban on products that have never been proven to have caused so much as a single case of indigestion.
That’s Dan Gardner, in the introduction to his 2009 book Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear. Gardner also has another book out titled Future Babble, on the lack of accountability — not to mention the lack of accuracy — of experts making predictions.
I have the students in my Law, Economics, and Organization seminar read the beginning chapters of Gardner’s book as part of our in-class discussion of risk sharing and incentives, and they usually find Gardner’s book to be thought-provoking.
Spring Break Classic Posts: Why “Gas Strikes” Make Absolutely No Sense
(It’s Spring Break here this week, so I am taking the week off from blogging to work to revise a few articles and begin working on new research projects. As a result, I am re-posting old posts that some new readers might have missed but which were very popular the first time I posted them. The following was initially posted on March 9, 2011.)
I just saw this on Facebook:
“OKAY! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!! Gas Strike March 10th! This worked once before…let’s try it again. On March 10 if everyone does not buy gas for one day, it will hurt the oil companies. It’s time we stood up to them. We CAN have a voice…REMEMBER “MARCH” 10th DO NOT BUY GAS! Please repost this to as many people as you can…it is urgent that this spreads like wildfire!
PS: Try not to fill up the day before or after so that this day will have an impact on the companies
Thanks”
Annoying statements in ALL CAPS and questionable punctuation (or lack thereof) aside, I just wanted to state for the record that this is a really, really stupid idea.