Panicology

Every day, our attention is drawn to more and more life-threatening disasters. It seems that the risks stemming from existence itself are taking on increasingly alarming proportions. And we admit to panic - because these rumors are a dizzying mixture of scientific data and exaggerations, in which the "story" appeals to our emotions, and the "series of data" appeals to our intellect. Statistician Simon Briscoe and science writer Hugh Aldersey-Williams present the world's most troubling issues as well as a series of local problems that we like to magnify - and which, according to them, we don't need to worry about in the 21st century. century. This witty and instructive book peels back the hysteria from more than forty popular panic stories, from overpopulation to biting murders, from the depletion of fish stocks to mass obesity. It shows how the media and interest groups exploiting our fears can manipulate statistics to an extraordinary extent. And most importantly, this book gives us methods to help us decide what is worth panicking about and what is not. Panicology is a work that provides a skeptical analysis, but is energetically optimistic, which sufficiently equips the reader for a life without panic - to be able to approach old and modern horror stories with rational consideration and perhaps a hint of irony.