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The Denominator Blindness Effect: Accident Frequencies and the Misjudgment of Recklessness

dc.contributor.authorViscusi, W. Kip
dc.contributor.authorZeckhauser, Richard
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-18T19:23:56Z
dc.date.available2014-08-18T19:23:56Z
dc.date.issued2004
dc.identifier.citation6 Am. Law Econ. Rev. 72 (2004)en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1803/6662
dc.description.abstractPeople seriously misjudge accident risks because they routinely neglect relevant information about exposure. Such risk judgments affect both personal and public policy decisions, e.g., choice of a transport mode, but also play a vital role in legal determinations, such as assessments of recklessness. Experimental evidence for a sample of 422 jury-eligible adults indicates that people incorporate information on the number of accidents, which is the numerator of the risk frequency calculation. However, they appear blind to information on exposure, such as the scale of a firm's operations, which is the risk frequency denominator. Hence, the actual observed accident frequency of accidents/exposure is not influential.en_US
dc.format.extent1 PDF (40 pages)en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Law and Economics Reviewen_US
dc.subject.lcshRisk perceptionen_US
dc.subject.lcshRisk assessment -- Mathematical modelsen_US
dc.subject.lcshRisk assessment -- United States -- Psychological aspectsen_US
dc.subject.lcshJurors -- United States -- Psychologyen_US
dc.titleThe Denominator Blindness Effect: Accident Frequencies and the Misjudgment of Recklessnessen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.ssrn-urihttp://ssrn.com/abstract=357160


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