People tend to estimate general risks to be larger than personal ones


30.09.2018

It is important to distinguish between personal and general risk perception since it seems that people tend to estimate general risks to be larger than personal ones (Oltedal et al., 2004). According to the research results of McKenna (1993), the vast majority of people rate the probability to experience negative events to be less compared to the average person (unrealistic optimism); on the opposite side there is unrealistic pessimism which is more likely to appear in people that already experienced accidents or other kinds of negative events (but see Oltedal et al., 2004, p. 13; see also Dolinski, Gromski, & Zawizsa, 1987).

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