02.05.13 – 06.06.13

RISK LAB

Why does the house always win? Is it better to do business with a bookie or a banker? How healthy is it to have a ‘healthy’ appetite for risk? As part of Science Gallery’s ‘LAB IN THE GALLERY’ series, RISK LAB examines the psychology and mathematics underpinning the risks that surround every aspect of our lives, and our ability to assess and understand those risks. From bad driving to the lotto, from real estate to smoking, humans find it tricky to evaluate risk. How do emotions, scenarios, or media skew our assessment of the odds? Is it possible to recalibrate our perceptions of risk?

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Curators

David Spiegelhalter - Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin - Ph.D. Candidate in Mathematics Education at School of Education, Trinity College Dublin

Highlights

Experiments

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  • IMPULSE TO DRIVE

    MICHAEL GORMLEY & GEORGIA O’CALLAGHAN

    Speeding, dangerous overtaking, drink driving, tailgating: what makes us do these things? Why is it that different people have radically varying attitudes towards driving safety, and is it possible to predict how risky you are on the road from your impulsivity? This experiment tests the link between driver safety and impulsive behaviour.

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  • HAZARD A GUESS

    EWAN DOUGLAS & SAM CROMIE

    Can you see the risks that surround you? Would you report a hazard if you saw one, or leave it to someone else? Human error and poor risk management contribute to catastrophes like Chernobyl, and this experiment explores risk reporting culture.

  • RAT RACE ROULETTE

    LEA DELERIS, DONNA GRESH, STEPHANE DEPARIS & SAM CROMIE

    Which route should you take to get from A to B on time? How easy is it to understand risk and uncertainty, and how does this affect travel delays? Travel on hypothetical journeys through Dublin in this experiment, which examines travel time uncertainty.

 

  • RISKY RIGHTS AND WRONGS

    MARY PARKINSON & RUTH BYRNE

    What would you do if faced with a moral dilemma? Would you choose a solution that would definitely solve some of the problem, or would you risk it all for a chance to solve all of it? This experiment examines how people make risky moral decisions.

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  • WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

    MARGARET RYAN, LOUISE HOPPER & SAM CROMIE

    Can you judge the consequences of your actions, or are you blind to major hazards? Can you see the link between risk and consequence? This experiment measures your conscious and unconscious acknowledgment of risk to help identify gaps in risk awareness.

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  • PRICE YOUR VICE

    DENIS O’HORA, MACIEJ DABROWSKI, RACHEL CAREY & AOIFE KERVICK

    Can you delay gratification? Are you more impulsive with your money or your vices? Do you ignore the future and live in the present? Disordered decision-making plays a role in heart disease, cancer and many more of the world’s greatest health problems. This experiment investigates how you balance risk and reward.

 
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  • DON’T BURST MY BALLOON

    DAVID HEVEY

    Do you play it safe or would you risk it all for the chance of a big win? How much would you bet on how much you can inflate a balloon before it pops? This experiment explores impulsivity through the simple act of inflating a virtual balloon.

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  • PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MIND IS

    DAVID SPIEGELHALTER & MIKE PEARSON

    How sure are you of what you know? Find out in this general knowledge quiz, where you must bet on how certain you are that your answers are correct.

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  • THE SCARE BOOTH

    SHIMMER RESEARCH & SAM CROMIE

    Are you easily scared? Step inside the scare booth and test your physiological response to risk.

Artwork

  • Risk

    MICHELLE BROWNE

    Irish artist Michelle Browne presents a series of poker games played
    by professional risk-takers who are wired up to biometric sensors while they play, monitoring their physiological response to the risks of gambling.

  • SoN01R 1.0

    FREDERIK DE WILDE & FREDERIK VANHOUTTE

    A visualisation of true random numbers generated from a quantum mechanical system.

  • TOTALLY RANDOM?

    DAVID SPIEGELHALTER & MIKE PEARSON

    What does a true random pattern look like? It might not be what you expect.

  • LUCKY NUMBERS?

    DAVID SPIEGELHALTER & MIKE PEARSON

    Is the Lotto really random? Watch this animation of past Lotto numbers to see the patterns that emerge.

  • TOPPLING TOWER

    RISK LAB: HANDS ON

    Stack blocks while wearing biometric sensors and find out how you respond to the risk of toppling the tower.

  • THE NON POP BALLOON STOP

    RISK LAB: HANDS ON

    How far will a balloon inflate before it bursts, and will you risk finding out?

  • COINCIDENCES

    RISK LAB: HANDS ON

    Do you have a good coincidence story? Share it with us on our wall of coincidences.

  • SHOCKING PRICE RISE

    IVAN TWOHIG

    Play our version of the steady hand game, which charts the rise and fall of Irish house prices from the 1970s to now.

  • FAR-FETCHED FATALITIES

    RISK LAB: HANDS ON

    Death by lightning, or falling off a cliff? Pick a card from the raffle of unusual causes of death to find out the past odds of dying in a statistically unlikely way.

  • ROULETTE

    RISK LAB: HANDS ON

    Play roulette with us while learning about the maths behind the game.