"Panicology" is the title of a book published by Viking, Penguin in February 2008
The book is about the mad science of media scares and how we respond to them.
Afraid you might succumb to bird flu?* Worried that a life of penury awaits you in old age? Concerned that you might not be having as much sex as the French? And anxious that our planet is under threat from climate change, or even an asteroid crash?
If any, or all, of these things worry you, take heart from the fact that you’re not alone. People in different countries might fear different things (the Danes apparently worry most about nuclear power, the British about terrorist attacks, the Italians about radiation from their beloved mobile phones), yet anxiety is everywhere a condition of modern life. But why? It’s perfectly clear we are living longer, safer and more healthy lives than any generation before us. Standards of living continue to rise inexorably across the Western world, and even the major challenge of global warming has been recognized and is being tackled. So what’s there to worry about?
In this witty and revealing book, Simon Briscoe and Hugh Aldersey-Williams strip away the hysteria which surrounds over forty of today’s most common scare stories, from overpopulation and murder rates to fish shortages and obesity levels, and show the extraordinary extent to which stats are manipulated or misrepresented by vested interests and the media, keen to exploit our fears. And most importantly they offer a toolkit for scepticism – ways of helping you sort out what really is worth panicking about from the stuff that really isn’t.
The media is often blamed for the scares but many originate from government, PR firms, lobbyists, charities and other researchers. Even the physicist, Prof Stephen Hawking said: "Life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers". (Hawking was speaking at a press conference in April 2007 when he took a zero gravity flight to promote interest in space.)
* Don’t be, unless you’re involved in the ritualistic slaughter of wildfowl.