The fast and the dangerous: The speed of events influences risk judgements

A risk‐as‐feelings approach suggests that factors irrelevant to the potential risk can influence risk perception. This investigation focused on the speed of events as one such factor. Negative events that occur relatively quickly were judged as more likely to occur than events that occur more slowly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of social psychology 2012-03, Vol.51 (1), p.178-187
Main Authors: Lench, Heather C., Flores, Sarah A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis of Variance
Attitude to Health
Biological and medical sciences
Comparative analysis
Discrimination (Psychology)
Fear
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Judgement
Judgment
Motion Perception - physiology
Perception
Psychological effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Risk
Risk Assessment - methods
Risk Reduction Behavior
Risk-Taking
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social psychology
Wounds and Injuries - psychology
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Summary:A risk‐as‐feelings approach suggests that factors irrelevant to the potential risk can influence risk perception. This investigation focused on the speed of events as one such factor. Negative events that occur relatively quickly were judged as more likely to occur than events that occur more slowly. Speed influenced risk perception when it was salient and differences in risk perception were reduced when it was not salient. Further, the likelihood of a negative outcome was judged to be more likely when the same event was described as occurring relatively quickly compared to slowly. Even when only the speed at which information was presented changed, faster events were judged to be riskier than slower events. Theoretically, these findings suggest that speed of an event contributes to risk judgements and suggest speed may be the reason people fear fast but low incidence events and fail to fear slower but higher incidence events.
ISSN:0144-6665
2044-8309
DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8309.2011.02049.x