Dylan Evans's Blog

I think the way people play video games can tell you a lot about their personality. This thought first came to me in 1999, when I was sharing a flat in London with a friend of mine. To preserve his … Continue reading →

Daniel Kahneman’s recent bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is a brilliant summary of a lifetime’s work in the psychology of decision making. Together with his colleague, Amos Tversky, Kahneman revolutionized the way psychologists think about how people reason and make … Continue reading →

Suppose you are studying for two exams, one of which is much harder than the other, but which are both equally important to you. You estimate you have a 45 percent chance of passing the easy exam, but only a … Continue reading →

Driving is one of the riskiest activities that people in the United States can possibly do. Each year, thousands die as a result of traffic incidents, so risk intelligence behind the wheel is a crucial. Cars have been mass-produced in … Continue reading →

If you intend to embark on a career as a gambler or a weather forecaster, or if you intend to speculate on the stock exchange or take a punt at your local horse races, improving your risk intelligence would stand … Continue reading →

In chapter 8 of my book, Risk Intelligence, I discuss the concept of expected utility.  To calculate the expected utility of a course of action, the first step is to estimate – separately – the probability of success, and the … Continue reading →

Would you illegally climb the Shard, Europe’s tallest building, currently unfinished, just for fun? Maybe that’s not your idea of amusement. But what if you were itching to leap over a walkway, sneak past the security guard, sprint up the … Continue reading →

Imagine my surprise, last week, when I read a report announcing that researchers in Germany had created “the first quick test for establishing an individual’s risk intelligence.” After all, I created an online risk intelligence test back in 2009, and … Continue reading →

The term risk intelligence or RQ has only emerged in recent years. Although the phrase is new, however, the concept is prefigured in Keats’ idea of negative capability – how much mystery uncertainty or doubt a person can handle without getting … Continue reading →

Oh dear, it’s Friday 13th today! Whether you are superstitious or not, you can’t help but notice this combination of day and date because it is so marked in cultural consciousness as being unlucky. You might not care about the … Continue reading →