We are the safest humans who ever lived - the statistics prove it. And yet the media tells a different story with its warnings and scare stories. How is it possible that anxiety has become the stuff of daily life?

In this ground-breaking, compulsively readable book, Dan Gardner shows how our flawed strategies for perceiving risk influence our lives, often with unforeseen and sometimes-tragic consequences. He throws light on our paranoia about everything from paedophiles to terrorism and reveals how the most significant threats are actually the mundane risks to which we pay little attention.

Speaking to psychologists and scientists, as well as looking at the influence of the media and politicians, Gardner uncovers one of the central puzzles of our time: why are the safest people in history living in a culture of fear?

Every day, we suffer a barrage of warnings about the threat of terrorism, war and apocalypse. The news is a parade of horrors. Anxiety is the stuff of daily life. And yet the statistics say we are the safest and healthiest humans who ever lived. How is this possible?

In this ground-breaking new book, Dan Gardner explains how we perceive risk, and examines the psychology that drives our fears. Analysing our risk perception as the combination of the brain's two simultaneous responses -- the intuitive feeling and the rational, considered response -- he throws light on our paranoia about paedophiles, chemical contamination, and suicide bombs, and explains why the significant threats to our lives are actually the mundane risks we pay little attention to.

Speaking to psychologists, economists, and scientists, Gardner reveals not only how we make judgments but how those judgments are influenced by corporations, politicians, activists and the media -- all of which have an interest in promoting irrational fear. In doing so, he explains one of the central puzzles of our time: Why are the safest and healthiest people in history living in a culture of fear?