“Our students would…rationalize their risky behavior by comparing themselves to their peers who they say also take similar actions and have remained safe.”

Meet Dilshani Sarathchandra (bit.ly/2O7SLFw), an assistant professor at the University of Idaho. Dilshani is a sociologist who studies risk assessment. She focuses not on the calculations behind risk assessment, but how our human emotions and feelings influence what we consider risky behavior. And it turns out we’re really terrible at deciding what is risky behavior and where to put our trust. Dilshani has spent her career studying this odd dichotomy between real and perceived risky behavior, including a number of studies on people’s trust in science and cybersecurity risk among college students.

Visit our website uidaho.edu/vandaltheory. Email us at [email protected].

Learn about Idaho’s premier research university, University of Idaho, at uidaho.edu.

More U of I research:

U of I has identified and cloned a gene that can fend off a major fungal threat to wheat and barley. This genetic advance could lead to new wheat varieties with more dependable yields and reduce the need for pesticides. Learn more (bit.ly/34SoD7O).

David Ausband published a study on how wolves use the space around the sites where they rear their pups. The study suggests the closer the wolves are related to a litter of pups, the more time they will spend rearing the young. Read more (bit.ly/2Q7M4Wr).

The U of I wants to create a dynamic new meat science center and a $1 million gift took us one step closer. The new center will expand students’ educational opportunities in animal processing. Learn more (bit.ly/33E6MRM).

Music:

“Young Republicans” by Steve Combs (bit.ly/2PsMCpw) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/2Ju7MQb).

“Terminalism” by Phylum Sinter (bit.ly/2p4s1wS) via freemusicarchive.org, not modified (bit.ly/2rs2M8y).