http://bigthink.com/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality <p>Fear is good. It helps protect us. But getting risk wrong &mdash; worrying more than the evidence says we need to, or not as much as the evidence says we should &mdash; produces stress and leads to unhealthy choices for ourselves and for society. We do have to fear fear itself: too much, or too little. Understanding&nbsp;<em>why</em>&nbsp;the gap exists between our fears and the facts is the first step toward managing the potential risk of risk&nbsp;<em>mis</em>perception, and making healthy choices for ourselves, our families, and our communities.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dropeik.com/">David Ropeik</a>&nbsp;is an instructor at Harvard, a consultant in risk perception, risk communication, and risk management, author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Risky-Really-Fears-Always/dp/0071629696/ref=sr_1_1?%20ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1266244724&amp;sr=1-">How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don&rsquo;t Always Match the Facts</a>,&nbsp;</em>principal co-author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Risk-Practical-Deciding-Really-Dangerous/dp/0618143726">RISK: A Practical Guide for Deciding What&rsquo;s Really Safe and What&rsquo;s Really Dangerous in the World Around You</a>,</em>&nbsp;and was a broadcast journalist in Boston for 22 years.</p> <p><em><strong>David Ropeik recommends you visit these sites:</strong></em></p> <p><a href="http://blogs.nature.com/news/" target="_blank"> Nature Newsblog </a><br /><a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/" target="_blank">Dot Earth</a> <br /><a href="http://blogs.forbes.com/emilywillingham/" target="_blank">The Science Consumer</a>, Emily Willingham, Forbes <br /><a href="http://www.marklynas.org/" target="_blank">Mark Lynas</a> <br /><a href="http://www.culturalcognition.net/blog/" target="_blank">The Cultural Cognition Project</a> <br /><a href="http://thebreakthrough.org/" target="_blank">The Breakthrough</a> <br /><a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs" target="_blank">Climate Central</a> <br /><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/category/science-blogs/" target="_blank">Wired Science blogs</a> <br /><a href="http://inkfish.fieldofscience.com/" target="_blank">Inkfish</a> <br /><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/" target="_blank">Literally Psyched</a> <br /><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/scicurious-brain/2012/12/05/stressed-out-and-not-thinking-straight/" target="_blank">The Scicurious Brain</a> <br /><a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/" target="_blank">Brainpickings</a> <br /><a href="http://exp.lore.com/" target="_blank">Explore </a><br /><a href="http://boingboing.net/tag/science" target="_blank">Boingboing Science</a><br /><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom#.UMAAJIVV99U" target="_blank">The Loom</a><br /><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/#.UMAAbYVV99U" target="_blank">Not Exactly Rocket Science</a><br /><a href="http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/" target="_blank">The Observatory </a>(Columbia Journalism Review blog on the science press)<br /><a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/" target="_blank">The Politics Blog</a>,&nbsp;Charlie Pierce,&nbsp;Esquire Magazine&nbsp;<br /><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/cancer-funding-does-it-add-up/" target="_blank">Well</a>, Tara Parker-Pope, The&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;</p> Thu, 23 May 2013 18:47:45 -0000 Copyright Big Think. This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/JwmLDadLiqw/government-investigations-of-journalists-when-freedom-of-the-press-and-other-freedoms-collide http://bigthink.com/ideas/government-investigations-of-journalists-when-freedom-of-the-press-and-other-freedoms-collide Tue, 21 May 2013 11:33:36 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/government-investigations-of-journalists-when-freedom-of-the-press-and-other-freedoms-collide http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/0Ubr0zpS-rg/angelina-jolie-breast-cancer-and-fear http://bigthink.com/ideas/angelina-jolie-breast-cancer-and-fear Tue, 14 May 2013 12:04:35 -0400 Angelina Jolie’s OpEd in the New York Times today  is not the one in which she reveals she has had her breasts removed to reduce the likelihood she will develop breast cancer. It’s this one; “Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts ...

Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/angelina-jolie-breast-cancer-and-fear http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/i49AEi34KnI/rising-the-dow-temperatures-population-see-a-connection http://bigthink.com/ideas/rising-the-dow-temperatures-population-see-a-connection Tue, 07 May 2013 11:25:53 -0400 Charles Keeling started measuring CO2 concentrations in the air above Mauna Kea ...

Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/rising-the-dow-temperatures-population-see-a-connection http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/MzzVPkShwgI/big-brother-is-watching-and-i-feel-fine http://bigthink.com/ideas/big-brother-is-watching-and-i-feel-fine Wed, 01 May 2013 12:37:12 -0400 Big Brother government snooping on us, listening in on our phone calls, intercepting our e mails, watching us with all kinds of surveillance devices, offends most people...until we’re afraid, and we need government to protect us from what we can’t protect ourselves from as ...

Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/big-brother-is-watching-and-i-feel-fine http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/I8ZM04GztYI/fear-good-and-bad-lessons-from-a-bad-week-in-boston http://bigthink.com/ideas/fear-good-and-bad-lessons-from-a-bad-week-in-boston Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:54:09 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/fear-good-and-bad-lessons-from-a-bad-week-in-boston http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/wBa3AgGDBxc/fear-shuts-down-boston http://bigthink.com/ideas/fear-shuts-down-boston Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:21:28 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/fear-shuts-down-boston http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/T0RmTPg0hXI/the-boston-marathon-bombing-why-terrorism-works http://bigthink.com/ideas/the-boston-marathon-bombing-why-terrorism-works Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:00:00 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/the-boston-marathon-bombing-why-terrorism-works http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/BzDtlwYKfQg/hey-geoengineers-a-word-of-warning-schlimmbesserung http://bigthink.com/ideas/hey-geoengineers-a-word-of-warning-schlimmbesserung Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:30:56 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/hey-geoengineers-a-word-of-warning-schlimmbesserung http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/f3xxfcsy3Hw/toms-river-woburn-and-the-sad-lack-of-clean-answers-about-cancer-clusters http://bigthink.com/ideas/toms-river-woburn-and-the-sad-lack-of-clean-answers-about-cancer-clusters Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:23:05 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/toms-river-woburn-and-the-sad-lack-of-clean-answers-about-cancer-clusters http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bigthink/blogs/risk-reason-and-reality/~3/d9WqEg5mIZ8/less-news-is-bad-news-for-the-news-business http://bigthink.com/ideas/less-news-is-bad-news-for-the-news-business Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:25:38 -0400
Read More]]> David Ropeik http://bigthink.com/ideas/less-news-is-bad-news-for-the-news-business