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Ambiguity aversion

A readiness to choose the option with known probabilities even when its expected result is worse — anything rather than deal with uncertainty that cannot be measured.

How to read the number

It explains why a familiar instrument with a computed risk is preferred to an unfamiliar one: measurability is reassuring regardless of what the measured quantity turns out to be.

When the metric lies

The precision of a risk estimate gets confused with its size. An instrument whose dispersion is easy to compute is no safer for it — what gets counted is simply what lends itself to counting.

Also known as: aversion to unmeasurable uncertainty

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