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If we are talking about who to be afraid of, numbers would be a better guide. Can superficially nice, patient, respectable people do horrible things with no wa
by chmod600 5y ago
If we are talking about who to be afraid of, numbers would be a better guide.
Can superficially nice, patient, respectable people do horrible things with no warning? Sure. But how often does that happen? Is it enough to be afraid? Or is it just a more exciting story (in fiction or the news)?
I'm inclined to think our normal cues for fear of people are at least somewhat tuned to reality. That people about to do something bad give away their intentions (or their volatility/impulsiveness) in many ways before they do something bad.
- drewcoo 5y agoPeople's risk perceptions actually don't match reality no matter how much we wish they did. Given that, superficially nice people are likely a much greater threat to us all than we'd expect. And that's not to mention all of the dangerous encodings of social control (i.e. powerlessness) in that scenario. Search term: "risk perceptions"
- chmod600 5y agoI said specifically our fear of people, and I said "somewhat" tuned to reality (not perfectly). General risk perceptions are all over the map because we have no instinct to process risks like flying in an airplane. But people have needed to judge the safety of other people for a long time. It would be weird if our sense of fear was not somewhat aligned with danger in that area.