Reddit reviews The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger

Actually, there a fewer and fewer accidents per passenger mile. Even if you don't take into consideration that more people are flying more often, you would see that accidents are flat or declining depending on how you count. (i.e., there are really just fewer and fewer accidents, period).

It's safer than ever to fly today.

http://planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents

You might be surprised how commonly humans make this sort of computational error. This book is really good at breaking down how bad humans are at thinking about risk.

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fear-Shouldnt-Ourselves-Greater/dp/0525950621

The Science of Fear is a really fascinating book all about this. Highly recommended.

this is also quite good.

People assign probability to threats in a stupid human way. We assign overly low probabilities to threats where the impact hasn't been recently felt. We also are seem to incorrectly assign higher probability and greater impact when calculating risk related to man-made disasters.

This recent disaster and its ongoing consequences has damaged their ability as humans to rationally calculate and mentally accept the low-risk result of nuclear risk calculation.

It's a flawed trait all humans share. Just like after 9/11, when people decided to drive instead of fly, resulting in more deaths than had they just flown because driving carries greater risk. The recent events had damaged their ability to estimate probability. The Japanese have seen first hand the impact of this risk, and here we sit criticizing them for being fearful.

My point is that it's no longer about rational argument or doing the "right" thing. The people won't accept it, until they somehow get over their incorrect estimation of risk.

If you're interested, there's a great book about this exact subject.