Risk = Hazard + Outrage: A Conversation with Risk Consultant Peter Sandman
In our recent podcast “The Truth is Out There… Isn’t It?,” we hear from professional skeptics, former UFO investigators, and “social incompetence” experts. One fascinating interview that didn’t make the final cut was with Peter Sandman, a “risk-communication consultant” whose work was also cited in Freakonomics. (Here is how he came to be what he is.)
Sandman breaks his work into three areas: scaring people who are ignoring something that is legitimately dangerous and risky; calming down people who are freaking out over something that’s not risky; and guiding people who are freaking out over something that is legitimately risky. To accomplish all this, Sandman came up with a useful equation: Risk = Hazard + Outrage. Here are some excerpts from Stephen Dubner’s interview with Sandman, which ranges from the perceived risk of WMD’s in Iraq to the debate over climate change. Read More »
Finally, an Investment Worth Making
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Read More »In the decade since the stadium opened, the personal seat licenses or PSLs fans bought for the right to purchase season tickets have soared in value, offering a far better return on investment than the slumping stock market or even the price of a barrel of oil.
Take, for instance, a fan who bought a license for a seat in an upper level of Heinz Field for $250 in 2001. It now is selling for an average of $4,306, an increase of 1,622.4 percent, based on 2011 sales at STR Marketplace, a website authorized by the Steelers to allow fans to buy and sell seat licenses.
A seat license that went for $500 in an end zone now is selling for an average of $7,486, an increase of 1,397.2 percent. And one that sold in a lower midfield section for $2,700 when the stadium opened now is going for an average of $17,131, a jump of nearly 534.5 percent.
Taken together, the 49,278 seat licenses sold by the Steelers for an average of $1,172 since Heinz Field opened now are selling for $9,802, on average, or an increase of 736.3 percent, based on the sales data.
In Search of an NGO in New Delhi
I’m going to be in India this week, just for a few days. My time is completely booked except for a few hours on the morning of Friday, Dec. 2. I’m looking for an NGO that works with the downtrodden in New Delhi and is willing to show me around some poor neighborhoods there. In return, I will donate $5,000 to that NGO in appreciation.
Can any blog readers provide guidance on this? I know it is short notice.
Lessons in Dr. Seussonomics
Every year, I have my 500 intro students write vignettes like those in my little book, Economics Is Everywhere. This year, I got one which is the most clever and original of the roughly 2,000 submitted in the past four years. It’s by my student Kourtney Kech, and appears below.
As a small child, I remember quite clearly, a book that my mother read and loved dearly.
The Lorax, by Seuss, a doctor of rhymes, provided us both with some great pre-sleep times.
The idea of scarcity is not that complex and is shown in great detail through Lorax’s text. Read More »
and 
. If you haven’t seen it yet, the movie features Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, and was made by a dream team of documentary directors. Paste Magazine named it one of the 