Citation

Slovic P, Peters E. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 2006; 15(6): 322–325.

Affiliation

Decision Research, Eugene, Oregon; and University of Oregon

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00461.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Humans perceive and act on risk in two fundamental ways. Risk as feelings refers to individuals' instinctive and intuitive reactions to danger. Risk as analysis brings logic, reason, and scientific deliberation to bear on risk management. Reliance on risk as feelings is described as "the affect heuristic." This article traces the development of this heuristic and discusses some of the important ways that it impacts how people perceive and evaluate risk.