Captain Observant on Nostr: Stumbled on this article about risk taking behaviour and how it spreads. It helps ...

Stumbled on this article about risk taking behaviour and how it spreads. It helps explain why most people are no longer taking Covid precautions I think… 1) if risky behaviour isn't followed by negative consequences then that reinforces that behaviour (“risk creep”) 2) Observing others' risky behaviour shows it is socially acceptable and makes one more likely to mirror that behaviour (“social learning”). https://hbr.org/2023/02/research-how-risky-behavior-spreads Unfortunately risk creep also leads to social learning of risky behaviour when it occurs in public. The most obvious example is unmasking.. if you 'get away' with it, the you're more likely to take that risk again AND other people seeing you do it also lower their perception of the risk. This is especially true for things that have delayed, variable, or invisible effects, like smoking causing cancer.. or post Covid conditions. And those who do become disabled (or die) are likely not going out in public to show the counter example, so people keep learning the risky behaviour from others who have not yet suffered the consequences.