One of the things I gleaned from Steven Pinker’s “Blank Slate” was we humans do not evaluate risk very well. And it goes back to evolutionary biology: the hunter-gatherers who stayed with the “known ways” passed their genetic profile to their progeny while the risk takers did not. But when we moved to modern society, we can embark on all sorts of “risky behaviors” and not have immediate consequences (think roller coasters). But our risk averse genes are in conflict with life experimentation, so the right evaluation is seldom made.

It is frustrating to have civil discussion with those who won’t try to evaluate risk. But we have a big problem that we have been trained to think: “I am so much more smarter than people who disagree with me.”