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<p>@blueskies2day, do you feel better about yourself after that “holier than thou” statement? Anyway, your comment has nothing to do with what I was trying to say.</p>
<p>There’s something in psychology called “The Exception Principle”. The classic example is when you watch the news, where it’s the exceptions to the norm that get reported. Every day or two they report a murder and soon the people watching think murder is rampant. Each new report reinforces that perception. Then you look at the numbers, and you surprisingly find the murder rate is at historically low levels, the odds of being murdered are incredibly tiny, and you can crawl out from under your bed.</p>
<p>Or when a couple of big passenger jets crash within a short amount of time and people suddenly conclude that flying is unsafe, when in fact it’s very safe - much safer than driving.</p>
<p>I’ll guesstimate there have been 80K-90K students at USC over the last 10 years, and as far as I know, only three students have been killed. And two of those students were a mile away from campus. Yet people talk like students have to start dodging bullets the second they step off campus.</p>
<p>If “reality” is simply going to be based on misleading perceptions, then universities might as well get rid of all their statistics and scientific analysis classes.</p>