According to Slovic’s research described in Chapter 13 in ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’, why do people often misjudge risks?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

When evaluating why people misjudge risks according to Slovic’s work described in Chapter 13, several plausible explanations may come to mind, so it’s useful to assess each option.
Option a: Their judgments are influenced by vivid images and emotional reactions. This aligns with Slovic’s emphasis on affect and affective heuristics, where vivid, emotionally charged imagery shapes how people perceive risk, often overpowering statistical facts. This explanation captures the core idea of how emotions color risk assessment.
Option b: They use complex calculations instead of intuition. This is not consistent with Slovic’s findings. In fact, the critique is that people rely more on intuition and affect rather than formal, complex calculations when judging risk, especially for familiar or dramatic risks.
Option c: They always underestimate rare events. While people frequently misestimate low-probability risks, the claim that they always underestimate rare events is too broad and not a universal rule highlighted by Slovic. The misjudgments can go both ways depending on the context and salience.
Option d: They confuse voluntary and involuntary risks. This specific confusion is not the central mechanism Slovic identifies as driving misjudgments in the described chapter; the literature emphasizes affect and availability rather than a categorical misclassification of voluntary versus involuntary risks.
Option e: They rely on objective measures of mortality. On the contrary, Slovic argues that people are more influenced by subjective, emotional, and symbolic factors than by objective statistics, so this option contradicts the core claim.

CCST9086_1A_2025 Quiz4

According to Slovic’s research described in Chapter 13 in ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’, why do people often misjudge risks?

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