Psychological Bulletin, the authors remind us that people’s perceptions of the risks of hazardous technologies or activities have little to do with consequentialist aspects (i.e., possible outcomes and their probabilities).
The sense of risk attached to a situation is directly proportional to the extent of perceptions of helplessness, or lack of control, in that situation.
If a risk is portrayed as new, unknown and unobservable, or one with delayed harmful effects, the feeling of dread in the minds of people is much higher.Listing out copious medical data on the consequences of infection and expecting ordinary people to do a proper cognitive evaluation of covid risks is not an effective solution.