¿Acceptable Risk¿ ¿ On the Rationality (and Irrationality) of Emotional Evaluations of Risk What is ¿acceptable risk¿? That question is appropriate in a number of different contexts, political, social, ethical, and scienti c. Thus the question might be whether the voting public will support a risky proposal or project, whether people will buy or accept a risky product, whether it is morally permissible to pursue this or that potentially harmful venture, or whether it is wise or prudent to test or try out some possibly dangerous hypothesis or product. But complicating all of these queries, the ¿sand in the machinery¿ of rational decision-making, are the emotions. It is often noted (but too rarely studied) that voters are swayed by their passions at least as much as they are convinced by rational arguments. And it is obvious to advertisers and retailers that people are seduced by all sorts of appeals to their vanities, their fears, their extravagant hopes, their insecurities. At least one major thread of ethical discourse, the one following Kant, minimizes the importance of the emotions (¿the inclinations¿) in favor of an emphatically rational decision-making process, and it is worth mulling over the fact that many of those who do not accept Kant¿s ethical views more or less applaud his rejection of the ¿moral sentiment theory¿ of the time, promoted by such luminary philosophers as David Hume and Adam Smith.

The first book to address the new topic of moral emotions about risky technologies

Acknowledgements; Robert C. Solomon-Foreword; List of Contributors; Sabine Roeser-Introduction; Part I: Emotions as Distortions about Risk; 1. Cass Sunstein-Moral Heuristics and Risk; 2. Ronald de Sousa-Here¿s how I Feel: Don¿t Trust Feelings! 3. Paul Slovic-'If I look at the Mass I Will Never Act': Psychic Numbing and Genocide;4. Ross Buck and Whitney A. Davis-Marketing Risk: Emotional Appeals Can Promote the Mindless Acceptance of Risk; 5. Dylan Evans-Emotions as Aids and Obstacles in Thinking about Risky Technologies; Part II: Emotions and Virtues in Risk Assessment; 6. Sabine Döring and Fritz Feger-Risk Assessment as Virtue; 7. Robert C. Roberts-Emotions and Judgments about Risk; 8. Peter Goldie-The Moral Risks of Risky Technologies; 9. Simone van der Burg-Ethical imagination: Broadening Laboratory Deliberations; Part III: Emotions as a Guide to Acceptable Risk; 10. Dan Kahan-Emotion in Risk Regulation: Competing Theories; 11. Dieter Birnbacher-Emotions within the Bounds of Pure Reason: Emotionality and Rationality in the Acceptance of Technological Risks; 12. Felicitas Kraemer-Emotions Involved in Risk Perception;13. Mark Coeckelbergh-Risk Emotions and Risk Judgments: Passive Bodily Experience and Active Moral Reasoning in Judgmental Constellations; 14. Sabine Roeser-Emotional Reflection about Risks; Name and Subject Index.