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Denial is part of it. Jared Diamond talks about this in "Collapse": "consider a narrow river valley below a high dam, such that if the dam burst, the resulting

Denial is part of it. Jared Diamond talks about this in "Collapse": "consider a narrow river valley below a high dam, such that if the dam burst, the resulting flood of water would drown people for a considerable distance downstream. When attitude pollsters ask people downstream of the dam how concerned they are about the dam's bursting, it's not surprising that fear of a dam burst is lowest far downstream, and increases among residents increasingly close to the dam. Surprisingly, though, after you get just a few miles below the dam, where fear of the dam's breaking is found to be highest, concern then falls off to zero as you approach closer to the dam! That is, the people living immediately under the dam, the ones most certain to be drowned in a dam burst, profess unconcern. That's because of psychological denial: the only way of preserving one's sanity while looking up every day at the dam is to deny the possiblity that it could burst. " - page 436

viscanti 7y ago
> concern then falls off to zero as you approach closer to the dam! That is, the people living immediately under the dam, the ones most certain to be drowned in a dam burst, profess unconcern. It's a fun story but it doesn't prove causality. Maybe their faith in the dam is why they moved there.
- SiempreViernes 7y ago
  That seems very far fetched: by the description that river was well populated before the dam was built, so the ones left closest is by majority those that stayed after it was completed.
YinLuck- 7y ago
Jared Diamond is cringe.
alexgmcm 7y ago
Has this actually been confirmed via observation though? Are there polls/surveys that see this effect? I mean I think if I was living right next to a dam or a chemical plant or whatever I would be more worried about an accident. Although I suppose in real data you could get selection bias - those people who are terrified by nuclear power are unlikely to continue living next to a plant for long, leaving behind only those who are not bothered by it.
therealdrag0 7y ago
Maybe the people who live closer to the damn work on the damn and know more about it so are less scared.

viscanti 7y ago

> concern then falls off to zero as you approach closer to the dam! That is, the people living immediately under the dam, the ones most certain to be drowned in a dam burst, profess unconcern. It's a fun story but it doesn't prove causality. Maybe their faith in the dam is why they moved there.

SiempreViernes 7y ago
That seems very far fetched: by the description that river was well populated before the dam was built, so the ones left closest is by majority those that stayed after it was completed.

YinLuck- 7y ago

Jared Diamond is cringe.

alexgmcm 7y ago

Has this actually been confirmed via observation though? Are there polls/surveys that see this effect? I mean I think if I was living right next to a dam or a chemical plant or whatever I would be more worried about an accident. Although I suppose in real data you could get selection bias - those people who are terrified by nuclear power are unlikely to continue living next to a plant for long, leaving behind only those who are not bothered by it.

therealdrag0 7y ago

Maybe the people who live closer to the damn work on the damn and know more about it so are less scared.