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Risk Perception and Affect

Current Directions in Psychological SciencePublished 1 December 2006
Paul Slovic, Ellen Peters
Citations1,435
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score3.21
SNIP3.16

Abstract

Humans perceive and act on risk in two fundamental ways. Risk as feelings refers to individuals' instinctive and intuitive reactions to danger. Risk as analysis brings logic, reason, and scientific deliberation to bear on risk management. Reliance on risk as feelings is described as “the affect heuristic.” This article traces the development of this heuristic and discusses some of the important ways that it impacts how people perceive and evaluate risk.

Keywords

Social SciencesDecision SciencesNeuroscience