Abstract
Risk-taking implies uncertainty and possibly disastrous outcomes. This chapter explores the different ways how people manage such uncertainties when taking risks. Following a modernist world view, it starts with distinguishing instrumental rationality from so-called non-rational strategies such as hope, ideology and faith and shows that both are efficient ways to manage uncertainty. Furthermore, it introduced the notion of in-between strategies such as trust, intuition and emotions and discusses their value in everyday risk-taking. The chapter concludes that in everyday life, all these strategies combine in complex ways in reasonable ways of risk-taking.
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- 1.
Indeed, we will see that emotions are referred to in every decision. However, they can play different roles in risk-taking. They are not always dominant in shaping risk-taking.
- 2.
It is an important question under which social conditions there is opportunity to build confidence and which conditions prevent people from building confidence.
- 3.
Compare also Kahneman (2011) who provided an authoritative account of the combination of cognitive and emotional parts of the brain in decision-making.
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Zinn, J.O. (2020). Reasonable Risk-Taking in Everyday Life. In: Understanding Risk-Taking. Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28650-7_8
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