Opinion: What we can learn about risk from the Covid experience

Humans don't perceive risk accurately, and it's important that we learn the right lessons about risk from the Covid-19 pandemic, says Professor Geoff Mulgan (UCL STEaPP). Life is risky and tends to end in death, which makes it easy to become paranoid - about the food you eat, the air you breathe or the strangers you walk past in the street. But what should we really fear, whether as individuals or collectively? After a year of lockdowns and millions of deaths this question is very much in the air as countries weigh up the risks of new strains of the coronavirus and the potential harms from further lockdowns. Evolution made us highly attuned to risks such as spiders or snakes. But we're not so good at handling the risks of modern life and our governments are sometimes just as incompetent. The surprising claim of social science is that what we fear - and how much we fear it - is in part a matter of choice. Your ancestors were terrified of going to hell or being cursed.