© Malcolm W. Harkins 2016

Malcolm W. Harkins, Managing Risk and Information Security, 10.1007/978-1-4842-1455-8_2

2. The Misperception of Risk

Malcolm W. Harkins

(1)Folsom, California, USA

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

—George Bernard Shaw

One hundred years ago, the “unsinkable” Titanic foundered after striking an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 people died in what became one of the deadliest maritime accidents ever. Several factors contributed to this massive death toll, but perhaps the most critical was that there simply weren’t enough lifeboats. The ship carried 2,224 people, but fewer than half of them could squeeze into ...

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