Blog 1: Person Perception, Social Judgment, Heuristics

I am from Austin, which has been and still is a fairly small, safe city. Technically we live out on the lake, which is out in the country, so I have been spoiled as far as safety is concerned. I have never come close to any kind of unwanted confrontation with a stranger on the road. I have never been followed or chased, and I have never been approached with anything more than a question about my car at a gas station. I don't know anyone who has ever been attacked or followed or anything. However, a long time ago I received one of those emails women send out to warn each other about possible attacks, etc. The email told the story of a woman (no clue if it was a real story) who narrowly avoided abduction at a gas station. It was late at night and she was by herself getting gas. After she paid and pumped the gas, the attendant inside called her on the intercom to come inside because there was a problem with her credit card. The woman didn't believe him and tried to leave. When he insisted she finally went inside and he told her that there was no problem but that he had watched a man crawl under her car and wait for her to get in so he could grab her ankles and attack her. The email suggested that women be careful to keep an eye on their cars when getting gas and to check underneath them and in back seat before getting in to make sure no one is hiding. I do not even know the statistics of women being abducted in this manner, although I'm guessing it is not extremely high relative to other situations considering the intense lighting at gas stations. However, since reading that email, I have developed a a habit for checking my car when I leave a store or get gas by myself at night. I have one of those keys that you can press once to unlock only the driver side and as I walk out I look behind me compulsively and press my key only once as I approach, glance under the car and hop in. I immediately close the door, glance behind the seat, lock the doors, and glance in the rear view to make sure no one has followed me. Maybe I'm just cautious, maybe I'm paranoid, or maybe my behaviors are in accordance with the base-rate fallacy. The base-rate fallacy describes the human tendency to react much more strongly to dramatic events, such as reading the story of the woman at the gas station, than to statistics, which I have failed to even research. Either way, I guess I probably won't get abducted.

Lowenstein, G. F., Weber, E. U., Hsee, C. K., & Welch, N. (2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 267-286.

Slovic, P. (2000). The Perception of Risk. London: Earthscan.