We take risks when we engage in dangerous professions or extreme sports, when we decide how to invest our money or in which university to enrol. Whether they are natural or technological, risks are a constant feature of our lives, but everybody deals with them differently. Some of us feel compelled to climb insurmountable peaks, others allow themselves to be bewitched by gambling, and others still go no further than buying government bonds. The authors of this book explain how our mind works in a risk situation and how we attempt to control risk despite cognitive biases that influence our assessments. And the authors also help the reader understand why sometimes we can and indeed must, however carefully, take risks.

Lucia Savadori is a researcher at the University of Trento (Rovereto campus).

Rino Rumiati teaches General Psychology at the University of Padua.