Risk adaptation: A continuous learning process in the context of unrepeatable phenomena

Humanity is periodically affected by natural disasters, medical, environmental or military crises with an impact on large sections of the population. The reality observed by the population and the intervention modalities have influenced the way in which the notion of “risk” is perceived. Many everyday events are not taken into account by people, as the negative consequences are less likely to occur. Therefore, the subjectively perceived gravity of the consequences of certain events increases the attention paid to the presumed risks. Situations in which the causal relationship is directly perceptible, such as natural disasters, are usually appreciated. Suspicion and ignorance of risks increase with the imperceptibility of causal relationships or where understanding requires a high level of expertise. In the case of the current coronavirus pandemic, we are dealing with the situation of feeling effects directly (through personal infection or from someone we know) and indirectly through the information collected through the media, without knowing the generating causes. The explanations are heterogeneous, from various sources, unverifiable, often unsupported and scientifically unfounded. The explanations from the scientific world are complex, resulting from the interpretation of a multitude of scientific aspects, each of which is the subject of complex research, and the explanatory mechanisms are not accessible to the general masses due to lack of medical knowledge. If we add to the complexity of medical explanations the explanations provided by media channels by sensory-oriented public sources, manipulation, representation of foreign interests to some states, we find that the current picture of the structure of astounding and disturbing public information is created for a large part of the population it becomes suspicious under the influence of destabilizing messages. This article aims to initiate an approach to know how risks drive the creation of protection strategies in the context of unique or rare phenomena.