"interestingly, we found that politics influence people’s risk perceptions more than hard data such as crime statistics."
Oh Glob yes.
Modern misperceptions of safety tend to flow from media that fall into 2 camps. 1) Inept parroting of disprovable stats. 2) Campaigns of intentional/delusional, curated lies.
The second is inseparable from politics. It's also an arms-race reaction to imagined boogey-men (bias) - where the response was to become one (biased), only much more so.
But we didn't get here from zero. Some years ago, the gateway drug for news orgs was...
...being irresponsible. Leaning into false danger signalling to juice stats.
Like reporting a distant crime (ex:agenda-driven shooting) in a manner/tone that signaled the crime had instead occurred in their community.
...being incompetent. Like parroting false risks (es:stranger kidnappings of children), even tho authoritative stats the clearly debunk those claims.
In my town severe untreated mental illness is widespread and you routinely see things that seem unsafe.
There is one person who is aggressive and in your face who rumors swirl around, I wonder just how many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a year this person costs the community. (He deserves at least some attribution for a college student I know leaving)
Until 2021, I lived in a semi-rural area that was saturated with homeless. Camps are miles in all directions and they are a constant presence.
My ex transitioned into that community (increasing mi issues). Safe to say I had lots and lots of interaction with our unhoused neighbors.
For all that, we housed folks weren't unsafe. More to the point, we didn't feel unsafe - because that's how folks feel in the absence of an angst-creating drumbeat.
Modern misperceptions of safety tend to flow from media that fall into 2 camps. 1) Inept parroting of disprovable stats. 2) Campaigns of intentional/delusional, curated lies.
The second is inseparable from politics. It's also an arms-race reaction to imagined boogey-men (bias) - where the response was to become one (biased), only much more so.
But we didn't get here from zero. Some years ago, the gateway drug for news orgs was...
In my town severe untreated mental illness is widespread and you routinely see things that seem unsafe.
There is one person who is aggressive and in your face who rumors swirl around, I wonder just how many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a year this person costs the community. (He deserves at least some attribution for a college student I know leaving)
Until 2021, I lived in a semi-rural area that was saturated with homeless. Camps are miles in all directions and they are a constant presence.
My ex transitioned into that community (increasing mi issues). Safe to say I had lots and lots of interaction with our unhoused neighbors.
For all that, we housed folks weren't unsafe. More to the point, we didn't feel unsafe - because that's how folks feel in the absence of an angst-creating drumbeat.