Skip to main content

Why do people fear the wrong things? - Gerd Gigerenzer

645,602 Views

12,619 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

A new drug reduces the risk of heart attacks by 40%. Shark attacks are up by a factor of two. Drinking a liter of soda per day doubles your chance of developing cancer. These are all examples of a common way risk is presented in news articles, and can often be misleading. So how can we better evaluate risk? Gerd Gigerenzer explores the difference between relative and absolute risk.

WatchThink Dig Deeper Discuss
In the 1970s, the Mexican government had a problem: the capacity of the Viaducto (a highway with two lanes on each side) was too small, but the government did not have the necessary resources. But they had a brilliant idea: to buy paint, and repaint the highway in order to make three lanes out of two. That effort resulted increased the capacity by 50%. Unfortunately, the smaller lanes lead to a substantial increase of deadly traffic accidents. So the government once again bought paint, and repainted the highways, from three to two lanes. That decreased the capacity by 33%. At the end, it was announced that all these efforts had increased the capacity by 17%. Is there anything wrong with this announcement?

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Director Mateus Moretto
  • Educator Gerd Gigerenzer
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Storyboard Artist Mateus Moretto, Luciano do Amaral
  • Animator Mateus Moretto, Luciano do Amaral
  • Art Director Mateus Moretto
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Producer Bethany Cutmore-Scott
  • Script Editor Elizabeth Cox, Eleanor Nelsen
  • Fact-Checker Eden Girma

More from The Way We Think