Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk.

Experimental manipulations of affect induced by a brief new paper reports of a tragic event produced a pervasive increase in subjects' estimates of the frequency of many risks and other undesirable events. Contrary to expectation the effect was independent of the similarity between the report and the estimated risk. An account of a fatal stabbing did not increase the frequency estimate of a closely related risk, homicide, more than the estimates of unrelated risks such as natural hazards. An account of a happy event which created positive addect produced a comparable global decrease in judged frequency of risks.