Given the recent mass shooting in Newtown, the media are doing exactly what Kahneman says they do: making a rare event seem less rare. Once you've read his book, "Thinking: Fast and Slow", you become immune to the media's tricks. People who are not immune are fretting about gun control, about mental health, and about school safety. This is a total waste of time.
Mass shootings are becoming less rare, decade after decade. Whatever society is doing to diminish them is working very well. So, the correct response to the mass shooting is to think: nothing more needs to be done...especially about such a rare event.
On the same day that two dozen children were gunned down, 40 people were murdered, 50 people committed suicide, 70 people were killed by drunk drivers, and 275 people died from mistakes by hospital staff. If you want to fret about avoidable deaths, fret about deaths that are 20 times more common than mass shootings. But you won't hear about them from the media, because they are less rare.
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