Physical proximity to a hazard changes how people judge risk
Evidence
Schlichtmann watched as one of the jurors, Robert Fox, stood near the edge of the marsh and gazed over at the remains of the city wells, a few hundred feet away. “My God,” he heard Fox say, “I didn’t realize it was so close.” — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2232
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to ‘Close to home’: the work of avoiding politics, where people prioritize problems physically near their homes over larger distant threats. — connects to: Group momentum in a room can isolate the one person still tracking downside risk. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 1567; Accurate risk perception can coexist with discriminatory exclusion; Risk perception varies subjectively and shaped modern risk-calculating individualism — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1400 (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Accurate risk perception can coexist with discriminatory exclusion
#corroborates(0.95) - Risk perception varies subjectively and shaped modern risk-calculating individualism
#corroborates(0.90) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1400 - Companies use advantageous comparison to frame their hazards as negligible next to everyday risks
#corroborates(0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1650 - Perceived risk, not actual risk, drives compliance and stops deterring harm.
#corroborates(0.90) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1379 - Reasonable situational vigilance can spiral into perceiving danger where none exists
#corroborates(0.85) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 196 - Threat differs from curiosity and exploitability by holding subjects at a distance
#corroborates(0.85) - People unconsciously avoid confronting evidence that contradicts their sense of safety
#corroborates(0.85) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 229 - Trust rests on expectations about others’ actions bearing identifiable risk
#corroborates(0.85) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2424