When making decisions, people are "supposed" to weigh risks and benefits. All else equal, a 6% risk of a bad outcome should be worse than a 7 or 8 or 9% risk. But that isn't always how risk feels. I discuss how the feel of risk can be changed by subtle means, in ways that threaten good decision making.

<a href="http://chcr.umich.edu/who_we_are/people/person.2005-04-13.0911105258/person_view"><b>Peter Ubel</b></a> is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the
University of Michigan School of Medicine, Director of the General
Medicine Health Services Research Fellowship at UM, and Staff Physician
at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  He is also
Director of the Program of Improving Health Care Decisions, an
interdisciplinary research group jointly funded by the UM and the
Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a general internist who studies
issues related to decision psychology, economics, and bioethics. He is
currently principle investigator of three R01s from the NIH, all of
which involve extensive surveying of either patients or the general
public. He is a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for
Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton, and author of Pricing
Life: Why it's Time for Health Care Rationing (Bradford Books, a
division of MIT Press, 2000).<a href="http://chcr.umich.edu/who_we_are/people/person.2005-04-13.0911105258/person_view"></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"></span><br>