Ignore the bright and shiny objects

I don’t think Mosquito Week would have the same cache as Shark Week but humans are far more likely to die from a tiny mosquito bite than a reenactment of Jaws.

Lightning kills about 46 people a year while deer that cause accidents kill another 150 or so. More than 300 people drown in the bathtub every year.

But these higher probability risks don’t make for a very compelling story so people spend all their time worrying about the low probability risks that they read about in the headlines.

I could really tie up this analogy into a neat bow if only there was a place where people misperceive the risks involved. Where they become swayed by scary narratives, headlines, and graphics instead of paying attention to the evidence, probabilities, and statistics. A place where people fall prey to the constant drumbeat of scare-tactics, noise, and clickbait to make decisions.

Wait — that’s the stock market.

http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2018/07/theres-no-such-thing-as-mosquito-week/