Selective Fatalism
探讨人们为何对某些风险漠不关心而对其他同等风险极度担忧，分析其背后的分配问题、适应偏好、认知偏差及价值判断，并提出以“可体面生活的生命年数”为规制起点的应对思路。
Human beings are selectively fatalistic. Some risks appear as “background noise,” whereas other, quantitatively identical risks cause enormous concern. This essay explores the reasons for selective fatalism and possible legal responses. Sometimes selective fatalism is a product of distributional issues, as people focus especially on risks that face particular groups; sometimes people adapt their preferences and beliefs so as to reduce concern with risks that they perceive themselves unable to control. Sometimes selective fatalism is a product of heuristics and biases. Finally, selective fatalism can be a product of diverse judgments of value and of unreliable social influences on risk perceptions. Selective fatalism might be overcome by an emphasis, as a regulatory starting point, on how many “decently livable life‐years” might be saved by regulation.