31 checked facts

Risk

Everything on this site about risk — each one naming the study behind it.

You prefer a known failure to an unknown outcome.
Humans tend to prefer smaller, guaranteed payoffs over larger, uncertain ones in the domain of gains, but often favor …
You fear losing more than you value gaining.
Prospect theory suggests that the psychological pain of losing $100 is roughly twice as intense as the pleasure of gai…
You ignore the math when certainty is on the table.
The 'pseudocertainty' effect explains why people choose a certain, smaller gain over a larger, statistically superior …
You fear losing more than you value gaining.
Prospect theory demonstrates that losses are weighted more heavily than equivalent gains.…
You prefer a smaller reward that is certain.
Research shows people systematically choose lower-value, certain rewards over higher-value options involving uncertain…
You mistake the ease of recalling a reason for the validity of that reason.
The availability heuristic leads you to treat information that is easier to remember as more important or frequent.…
You believe you are safer from misfortune than everyone else.
The optimism bias leads people to underestimate their personal risk of experiencing negative events like divorce or il…
You reject options when the outcome is unclear.
People avoid choices where the probability of success is unknown, even when other choices have lower odds.…
You expect good things to happen to you disproportionately.
The optimism bias is a cognitive illusion where you believe you are less at risk of negative events and more likely to…
You overestimate risks that appear frequently in the news.
People judge the probability of an event by how easily they can recall similar instances from memory.…
You judge risk by what you recall easily.
While the availability heuristic was indeed defined by Tversky and Kahneman in 1973, the specific study comparing perc…
Your mood determines your assessment of objective risk.
The affect heuristic leads you to perceive risks as lower when you are in a positive state.…
You rate common risks as rarer than they are.
The availability heuristic leads you to judge probability based on memory, not data.…
You assume you are less likely than others to experience misfortune.
The optimism bias is your tendency to believe that your future will be more positive than the evidence supports.…
You judge risk by how easily you recall stories.
The availability heuristic causes you to overestimate the probability of events that are emotionally vivid or recently…
Your current mood dictates your tolerance for risk.
The affect heuristic means that your feelings act as a shortcut for making complex decisions.…
You believe bad things only happen to others.
You consistently underestimate the probability that you will experience negative life events.…
You gauge risk by the news, not logic.
You estimate the probability of events based on how easily examples arise.…
Your feelings dictate your risk assessment before logic starts.
The affect heuristic is the process of using current emotions to make rapid decisions instead of evaluating complex da…
You believe you are safer than the average person.
Optimism bias is the tendency to rate your own risk of negative life events as significantly lower than that of your p…
You believe common causes of death are much rarer.
People consistently overestimate the frequency of dramatic deaths like shark attacks while underestimating common, qui…
You become less careful when you feel safer.
Peltzman's 1975 study argued that mandatory automobile safety regulations did not lead to the predicted decrease in ag…
You feel more capable when you believe you have control.
A 1975 study demonstrated that people were less likely to sell a lottery ticket if they were the ones who had chosen t…
You believe you are safer than the average person.
A 1980 study found that most adults rate their personal risk of accidents as significantly lower than their peers.…
You choose a known risk over an unknown one.
The Ellsberg Paradox shows that people prefer gambles with known odds over gambles where the probability is unknown.…
You over-allocate resources to eliminate a minor, symbolic risk.
The zero-risk bias leads people to prefer the complete elimination of a small risk over a greater total reduction in r…
You make decisions based on the most easily recalled examples.
The availability heuristic leads you to judge the probability of events based on how easily specific instances come to…
You judge how likely something is by your memory.
The ease with which examples come to mind determines your probability assessment.…
You assume you are safer than everyone else.
A 1980 study by Neil D. Weinstein published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that individuals…
You avoid the unknown even when it offers rewards.
Ambiguity aversion describes the tendency to prefer options with known probabilities over options with unknown probabi…
You fear risk more when the outlook is positive.
People show a strong preference for certainty when a positive outcome is likely, even when a riskier option offers a h…