Is risk something good or attractive?

Chapter 2 IS RISK SOMETHING GOOD OR ATTRACTIVE?

No one would say that accidents and injuries are good. When you drive a car, you try to avoid a collision. But you take risks. When driving, things can happen that result in people being injured and even killed. Before the trip starts, you do not know what will happen, but your experience and a quick risk assessment tell you that the trip will go well and you will arrive at the cottage as planned. You accept the risk without blinking, as it is small and the benefit from using the car is large.

Think about it. What things are you proud of having achieved in your life? Do they involve risk? “Yes,” I am sure you answer. It could have gone wrong, but you succeeded and had an amazing experience. Perhaps you thought of the first time you dared to give a speech for a large audience or you became the father or mother of a child. You remember being extremely nervous before the talk – there were no limits to what could go wrong in your mind before you started. You know that a birth can involve many complications, and the consequences can be very serious.

Fortunately, most people do not let the risks stop them; they carry on. The driving force is what one wants to achieve: to have children and to convey a message. But for some, the risks and uncertainties related to how things will go can seem so large that they are stopped from doing what they really want. The potential negative outcomes are frightening.

We all have our areas where we say no. But we know very well that if there are too many of them, our quality of life deteriorates, our activities are constrained, and we achieve little.

The other extreme is probably not much better; we take such high risks that the catastrophic outcome is almost given. If you drive extremely aggressively in traffic or engage in certain forms of extreme sports, you know that you are gambling with your life.

For most of us, the problem is not too much risk but too little. We dare not take the risk; the possible failures scare us. There is no definitive answer to what the right balance is between taking risks and protecting oneself. We are different as people. And we have different starting points. But if we are to develop as people, we must invest and take risks. The outcomes will not always be as desired, but over time we will most likely benefit from them – we create desirable outcomes and results. The negativities and difficulties we experience when the outcome of the risk we took turned out to be bad can be hard to bear, but they are part of life. Who has not experienced mistakes that became turning points? Look at sports. A football team that loses big one week will often play fantastically the next week. A golfer who messes up in a tournament in the last few strokes often comes back in the next tournament and wins. I have seen it happen over and over again. There is enormous energy in the loss and disappointment.

What would society look like without people taking risks? Business depends on people taking risks, such as investors who throw money into projects and shares where they do not know the outcome. They are driven by the belief that the investments will pay off. The state also takes risks – in fact, huge risks in many contexts. In Norway, it is the state that has invested in the oil and gas industry. Large amounts are invested. The Norwegians have been lucky; the outcome has been enormous in terms of income. However, a number of accidents and

Other titles by Terje Aven available from Scandinavian University Press:

Risiko og risikovitenskap. Fortellinger og refleksjoner 2022

Risikoanalyse 2.ed., 2017 (with Willy Røed and Hermann S. Wiencke)

Risikostyring 2.ed., 2015

Pålitelighets- og risikoanalyse 4.ed., 2006

Today, risk is on the agenda in most contexts: in connection with climate change, medicine and health, technology, economics, and much more. We often refer to the precautionary principle, but do we really understand this term? And when is it a meaningful principle to use? When accidents occur, we often complain about the preparedness being poor. But how good should the preparedness and safety be?

It is rare for media people, bureaucrats, or politicians to explain to us what risk really means. The politicians would like to follow the science, but the science does not always give clear answers, particularly when the uncertainties are large. Metaphors like black swans and perfect storms are popular, but giving them precise interpretations is not so easy.

This book is a collection of stories and reflections on risk and risk science. The aim is to give you, the reader, knowledge about how risk intervenes in our lives and society, and how risk science can help us understand, analyse, communicate, and handle risk. The author guides you through these topics without going into too much detail, and without becoming too technical.

The book is aimed at pupils and students and will work excellently as a first introduction to studies in risk-related subjects. It also provides an interesting and exciting introduction to the subject for those who work with problems related to risk in society – for example if you are an engineer, economist, healthcare worker or manager – in both the public and private sectors.

ISBN 978-82-15-06657-8