The Availability Heuristic

Your brain judges likelihood by how easily examples come to mind. If you can quickly recall plane crashes, you overestimate flying danger.

This is the availability heuristic. Vivid, dramatic, or recent events seem more common than they really are, so your risk map gets distorted. You may fear terrorism more than heart disease or flying more than driving, even when base rates point the other way.

Correction. When evaluating risk, ask for the base rate. Not "can I think of an example?" but "how often does this happen per 100,000 cases?"