RESEARCH_FILE
Paul Slovic
University of Oregon / Decision Research
Known for:The affect heuristic — showing that under emotional load, people shift from analytic to affective risk processing, which explains why 'just one' can feel near-zero risk to someone who analytically knows smoking is harmful
Key findings
- 2001
Risk perception operates on two pathways: analytic (deliberate, statistical) and affective (fast, emotion-driven). Under emotional load, the affective pathway dominates — making in-the-moment risk feel lower than considered analytic judgment would rate it, regardless of what the person knows. The affect heuristic ↗
Research areas
Related old scripts
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