The Fear Budget Hypothesis
Last night in my graduate Public Choice class, Peter Twieg suggested that people have a fixed mental budget of fear to allocate. An implication, I suggested, is that non-terrorist fears would decline right after 9/11.
Today I checked. At least for crime, the “fear budget” hypothesis checks out. From a long-running Gallup survey:
Notice: Fear of crime fell a month after 9/11, and reached a twenty-year minimum in October, 2002. The evidence is hardly iron-clad – fear was on a downward trend for years before – but it’s still pretty striking.
Anyone got any other evidence for or against the fear budget hypothesis?
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