Why don't people worry about cars as much as they should? There's a lot of research on how people perceive risks [1]. People are much more afraid of risks that

Why don't people worry about cars as much as they should? There's a lot of research on how people perceive risks [1]. People are much more afraid of risks that are imposed externally (e.g. getting randomly shot) vs voluntary (driving). Catastrophic things (plane crashes) are feared more than chronic risks (car crashes). Control vs no control makes people less afraid of car crashes (since they are nominally in control). Risk vs benefit makes people less fearful of cars (since they benefit). Uncertainty makes people fear nuclear power and GMOs. [1] Slovic's "Perception of Risk", 1987 is the fundamental risk perception paper: http://heatherlench.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/slovic.pdf http://heatherlench.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/slovic.pd... For a nice list of factors, see http://niemanreports.org/articles/understanding-factors-of-risk-perception/ http://niemanreports.org/articles/understanding-factors-of-r...