https://chessintheair.com/the-risk-of-dying-doing-what-we-love/

Many of us participate in activities and sports that are at least
somewhat dangerous. However, most of us also do not have a full appreciation of
how risky these activities really are, especially compared to other things that
we could be doing instead.

We just love our favorite pastime and facing up to its risks can be stressful
because we also want to be safe while having fun. Psychologists call this type
of stress “cognitive dissonance”, and we intuitively look for ways to remove the
discomfort of our conflicting emotions, often by downplaying the risks to
ourselves and to others.

E.g., when I became a glider pilot some 35 years ago, my instructors used to
proclaim that “the most dangerous aspect of the sport is the drive to the
airport”. This was a widely held belief at the time even though it could not
have been further from the truth. And while the slogan was famously debunked by
the prominent German pilot Bruno Gantenbrink in his speech “Safety comes first“,
our instinct to downplay the risks to ourselves (and to others) has of course
remained.

Given our natural inclination to deceive ourselves, it is not surprising that
good data about the factual risks of many activities can be difficult to come
by. And even if data are reported, they are often accompanied by statements that
soften, blur, or contradict the facts, frequently through the use of misleading
comparisons.