I don’t think this is accurate. People are often frightened of unlikely things so long as they feel they can do something about it. But when a threat seems incomprehensible and they feel powerless to do anything about it (at least partially bc they do not understand it), they will shut it out and shut down rather than confront it, because it overwhelms their ability to cope with it emotionally and paralyzes them.

Incomprehensibility and powerlessness are overwhelming emotions. They flood the nervous system, so people shut them out in order to be able to continue to function on a daily basis. It’s the same reason why people continue to ignore climate change.

It’s not a rational problem, or a probabilistic one. It’s a problem of emotion. It’s a trauma problem.