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Argument With Melvin Konner

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1. I agree with Melvin Konner when he said “People do not think or act rationally, even in their own self interest (944).” This can be seen in when people panic in high situations such as a fire. Recently, someone livestreaming, which is essentially a live recording of something, set his home on fire. Instead of thinking calm and rationally he attempted to put the fire out with other flammable materials. In situations like these, and even in situations where there isn't any stress, such as the the decision whether or not to wear a seatbelt, people do not think or act rationally. Our society is losing lives over a lack of rationality. Not only those who act irrationally are affected, but also those around them. 2. I agree with Melvin Konner stating that “Americans are pathological gamblers, relentlessly destroying theirs lives and the lives of those close to them by compulsively taking outrageous financial risks. (942).” One of my …show more content…

I agree with Melvin Konner’s statement that “We prefer familiar risks to strange ones (944).” Everyday we put ourselves in danger by eating unhealthy foods, driving in a car, and even walking on the sidewalk. Despite inherent dangers in all these situations we don’t worry about them resulting in our demise. We can see this based purely off news organizations who over exaggerate dangers such as brain eating amoebas in lake water, or a meteor that is passing “close” to Earth when it still millions of miles away. Both of these examples are not only highly unlikely, but the amount of deaths combined do not exceed 1000 every year. They can also be categorized as low-probability, but high-risk. This means that it will likely not happen, but if it does you will probably not survive. Society as a whole worries far more often about strange risks, compared to familiar risks. While they should not worry, if they do worry they should worry about risks that are actually going to harm them rather the the one in a million chance lightning kills

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