
A recent study explored the decisions that people typically make in everyday life and the kinds of decisions that are considered the most risky. The study was conducted with over 4,000 adults in Switzerland, asking them to report on the risky decisions they (personal perspective) and other people have had to make (Frey & Fischer, 2025). The specific questions were as follows:
People greatly differ in how they deal with the opportunities and risks of modern life.
[Personal perspective]: Now, please try to remember an important decision from your own life where you had the choice to either take a risk or avoid it, and you ultimately decided in favor of [against] the risk.
[Other perspective]: No,w please think of an important decision that many people have to make, and where people have the choice to either take a risk or avoid it. Please think of a decision where, in your opinion, most people ultimately decide in favor of [against] the risk.
The primary research question was: What are the most prominent risky choices people are confronted with in modern life?
Some of the results are expected, while others are surprising. Perhaps to no one’s surprise, the two…
