I frequently talk to people about risk assessment -- particularly when I hear people telling me how "dangerous" it is to fly. Humans are very bad at risk assessment. Knowing this can make you only slightly better at it (unless you actually do the studies and the math each time you evaluate risk), but it might make life easier to live, knowing that the things you worry about may not actually be worth worrying about.

The reason I mention this now is only because I looked up some links for more info. Here they are.

• Kahneman and Tversky have done some of the best research into overall risk assesment. Here's a brief summary of what they call Prospect Theory.
• The Culture of Fear, Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, gets good reviews on Amazon.
• The Polar Bear Strategy, Reflections on Risk in Modern Life, gets even better reviews. There's lots more, too.
• I've read Why Flip A Coin and Technological Risk

So here are some examples of evaluating risk. Do you think Finland is a particularly safe country to live in overall if you're my age (30)? Why (Answer here). Were the reasons you thought Finland was safe or dangerous the same reasons? Can simple reasoning, without statistics or math, give you a useful answer?