Risk compensation, as in the idea that people are more conservative when they feel more at risk, is pretty well founded. It's risk homeostasis, namely the idea

Risk compensation, as in the idea that people are more conservative when they feel more at risk, is pretty well founded. It's risk homeostasis, namely the idea that people will voluntarily increase their risk until a target level is reached, that's controversial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation#Risk_homeostasis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation#Risk_homeost... I recall reading some interesting research on this when it comes to playgrounds: these days unforgiving concrete is being replaced with bouncy rubber, and the compensation/homeostasis theory is that kids are playing in riskier ways because small tumbles don't hurt them any more.