People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren’t That Bad

It may sound counterintuitive that when outside threats decrease, we manipulate ourselves into finding new ones, even if they are completely benign. However, researchers found exactly that; we are often tricked by our own perception and see threats that aren't actually there.

So in an attempt to explore our misconceptions, Reddit user ThexLoneWolf made a post on the platform, asking everyone to list the things that society portrays as dangerous but in reality are pretty safe. From animals to medical procedures, here are some of the most popular replies they've received.

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Vaccines. They are extremely safe and effective despite what a very loud few say.

evilpercy , RF._.studio/pexels Report

Final score:

229points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Wolves. Wolf attacks on people are so rare they have individual entries on the Wikipedia page.

GrymEdm , Jonathan lajoie/pexels Report

Final score:

155points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Foxes. For some reason my local fb group ALWAYS seems to post about when they see a fox in town like “careful on your walks”

Do you think foxes EAT PEOPLE????

Autistic-Teddybear , Pixabay/pexels Report

Final score:

154points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Sending your kids outside to play. Go. Outside. It’s good for them.

DiscoJuneBug , Allan Mas/pexels Report

Final score:

147points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Quicksand. We were misled by '80s action films. It's pretty hard to actually die in it.

(Conversely, regular old riptides in the ocean are WAY more dangerous than people think).

smathna , Martin Hearn/flickr Report

Final score:

127points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad I do risk assessment for a living.

Humans are terrible at assessing risk, in general.

flyover_liberal , Tima Miroshnichenko/pexels Report

Final score:

119points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Movies really do sharks dirty. Wouldn’t say they’re completely safe, but definitely no where near as dangerous as perceived to be.

anon , Guryan /pexels Report

Final score:

115points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Black bears are pretty harmless. They *can* [harm] you, but usually would rather leave you alone.

bluegiant85 , Enric Cruz López/pexels Report

Final score:

113points

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People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Using a sharp knife in cooking. It's actually far more dangerous to use a dull knife.

Tribalbob Report

Final score:

110points

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#10

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Eating slightly out of date food.

anon , watthhekshudiputhere/reddit Report

Final score:

107points

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#11

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Small bubbles in an IV line aren’t going to [unalive] you like the movies. The amount of panicked patients I’ve had is wild.

truecolors110 , Navy Medicine/flickr Report

Final score:

89points

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#12

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Bees and wasps. I used to get stung a lot when I was a kid but I learned that if you don't wave your arms like a lunatic they'll leave you a lone. Also don't throw rocks at their nest and you should be okay.

shaka_sulu , Oktavianus Mulyadi/pexels Report

Final score:

85points

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#13

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Being a cop. Logging is over six times more dangerous.

Plodderic , Kindel Media/pexels Report

Final score:

80points

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#14

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad I’m sure other people have said, but trick or treating. Any danger in d***s or razor blades in candy is wildly overblown in actuality I think there have been only one or two instances of someone actually being malicious with their candy handouts.

Jconnor35 , Charles Parker/pexels Report

Final score:

74points

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#15

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad MSG.

LightyearKissthesky9 , Douglas Muth/flickr Report

Final score:

74points

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#16

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Flying on a plane. You are more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash.

ohnoitslemur , Skitterphoto /pexels Report

Final score:

73points

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#17

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Nuclear power.

ProductFinal1910 , Markus Distelrath/pexels Report

Final score:

73points

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#18

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad This is kind of a meta answer, but I’ve injured myself a lot more doing stupid projects around the house than I have while on duty in an actual dangerous industrial jobsite. Universally because I didn’t do a proper pre-work analysis and ensure I was using PPE.

MadisonPearGarden , Ksenia Chernaya/pexels Report

Final score:

72points

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#19

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Alligators. They are big and look scary but don't generally attack humans and don't consider us prey. Florida has millions of gators but only averages like 8 unprovoked attacks per year with about one fatal death every 3 years. They are dangerous to small pets, however, and I'm pretty sure many of those attacks are from trying to save a pet. But alligators are everywhere is Florida so it's quite surprising how few attacks there are.

Wizzdom , Los Muertos Crew/pexels Report

Final score:

66points

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#20

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad A lot of 3rd-world travel destinations; just because a country is poor doesn't mean that the people are robbers/murderers.

ColgateHourDonk , marcos quinteiro/pexels Report

Final score:

64points

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#21

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad My step mom is convinced that if a steak has any pink in the middle (I'm talking about anything less then well done) that its raw and will give you Salmonella.

Dragon_Knight99 , Dmitriy Ganin/pexels Report

Final score:

62points

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#22

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Silica packets say ,'Do not eat' on them because they are a choking hazard, not because they're poisonous.

l06ic , Scott Brown/flickr Report

Final score:

58points

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#23

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Nuclear waste, specifically the high-level spent fuel that needs to be dropped in cooling ponds for years. Make no mistake, it can absolutely [unalive] you if you’re exposed to the neutron emissions, but once it’s cooled off, it’s melted down into glass and sealed away in concrete casks. For all intents and purposes, these casks are indestructible; you could hit them with a runaway train and they wouldn’t break open. They can also be sealed away in deep boreholes underground for billions of years, more than enough time for the radioactive elements to decay to harmless amounts. When it’s handled correctly, nuclear waste may be the safest kind of waste there is. Ash from coal power plants emits far more radioactive particles than a nuclear reactor ever will, and it’s handled way less responsibly.

ThexLoneWolf , Savannah River Site/flickr Report

Final score:

50points

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HolyDiver 6 months ago

The latest technology is to bury them underneath the power plant property itself. This avoids the risk of transportation. They also dig way below the water table. The glass/concrete containers are nearly indestructible to begin with.

23points

Verena 6 months ago

This sounds like the first good idea I've heard. I was involved in the search for safe storage in Germany about 30 years ago. They never found one. Believing that salt mines would be stable enough was ridiculous, and the ones pushing that idea were surprised that containers were smashed by the moving salt. It was strongly advised not to this, because salt is not stable, once full with hole like Swiss cheese.

1point

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Red_panda 6 months ago

My concern with this is where do we continue to store it? I know it's a small amount and easy to store. But creating hazardous waste through electric generation is not sustainable. They will come a point where we have too much to store. What do we do then? I feel this is a great temporary solution, while we search for other, more sustainable solutions. Because that day will come, and with the population growing as quick as it is, it may come sooner than you think.

4points

Winter 6 months ago

What the fluffing hell is wrong about saying "dead", "kill", "murder", etc?! Ghod almighty, I reckon if I see that mewlingly pathetic "[unalive]" word again, I might just find myself wishing to {ooga-booga shiver-stammer (insert air quotes, and terrified squeaky-voice) [unalive] the idiot who used it! If you **mean** kill/killed, dead/death, murder/murdered, then SAY it, for crying out loud!

0points

Raymond Smith 6 months ago

I think I mentioned that with a reference above, way before I got here. Used to do inspections at nuclear power plants.

0points

Poppy 6 months ago

I wonder if archeologists in the future will wonder why we buried casks with spent nuclear fuel inside them.

0points

james stevenson 6 months ago

Doesn't the american army use Discarding-sabot rounds made of depleted uranium?

0points

v 6 months ago

The thing I think about when anybody talks about deep bore holes to store unwanted stuff (nuclear waste, CO2, etc.) is that when Earth lets loose it has the potential to be many times more powerful than the proverbial runaway train. Eventually, that stuff is going to make its way back out, it's just a matter of time.

0points

Nonplussed Puss 6 months ago

You think a volcano is going to spontaneously materialize?

0points

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meow point1 6 months ago

So it's not like The Simpsons, where they get rid of it by putting it in water.

0points

Danny Boy 6 months ago

I take no issue with the idea that waste is safe when stored properly... And let's also assuming that the concrete containers will stay perfectly intact for the 240 000 years it needs to do it's job... I mean the pyramids are 3000 years old and crumbling but this concrete I really good stuff... so let's just say the concrete they produced does do the job for 240 000 years... that still leaves the fact that the longest human civilization (egypt) is like 3000 years. So that fuel will be the world's least fun time capsule for like 80 consecutive runs of the Egyptian empire. I'm sure that knowledge of what it is and exactly how to handle it will be maintained for all those future people to not accidentally dig it up and use it as a glowing paper weight when they are digging in their post-post-apocalyptic back yard... just saying this post contains a boat load of arrogance about the staying power of our current civilization.

0points

WubiDubi 6 months ago

There are two elephants foots out there from spills. Now they are scary.

0points

Lorenzo 6 months ago

It's cooled, then melted into glass. Why waste time cooling it?

-1point

Devin Schmitt 6 months ago

How many runaway trains are found in deep holes?

-1point

Thatkamloopsguy 6 months ago

Stop using unalive. It is not even a word.

-1point

Ralph Kretschmer 6 months ago

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BisexualBat 6 months ago

They are concrete casks 45 cm thick, they won't "rot"

4points

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PattyK 6 months ago

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David Paterson 6 months ago (edited)

Just a few metres of water or soil will protect you from all five main types of nuclear radiation. Speaking as a physicist.

16points

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#24

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Spiders in your house.

jonpertwee2 , Jim, the Photographer/flickr Report

Final score:

48points

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#25

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Living in Chicago, I did it for 10 years, still don't own a bulletproof vest.

Inside-Bid-1889 , Leon Macapagal/pexels Report

Final score:

47points

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#26

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad My dad is an electrician, and he taught me when I was pretty young how to fix electrical things, so I am always amused at how terrified people are by anything to do with electricity.

funky_grandma , Emmanuel Ikwuegbu/pexels Report

Final score:

39points

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#27

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Going in the ocean. Talking to those people afraid of seaweed.

VanManDom , Anastasiya Vragova/pexels Report

Final score:

38points

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#28

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Anxiety/Panic Attacks. you'll feel like you're having a Medical Emergency, but you're not.

defunkman , David Garrison/pexels Report

Final score:

33points

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#29

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Changing the brakes on your car. They're trivially easy to do, don't require any special tools outside of a torque wrench, and dealer and mechanic prices are outrageous (parts can be found online for a fraction of the dealer price at places like AutoHausAZ, and shop rates for labor are super expensive). It's pretty hard to screw up, and can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

boxsterguy , Mikhail Nilov/pexels Report

Final score:

32points

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#30

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Roller Coasters and Amusement Park Rides: While these rides may seem scary, they are designed with strict safety regulations and are statistically very safe.

thinktaj , Nati/pexels Report

Final score:

30points

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#31

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren't That Bad Tandem Skydiving - strongest safety statistics of any type of jump, with only 0.003 fatalities per thousand jumps over the past 10 years. You're more likely to be struck by lightning or win the lottery than to die on a tandem skydive. Only done it twice, but such an incredible experience and rush....

NIstcomp111 , Tom Fisk/pexels Report

Final score:

27points

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What do people perceive as dangerous but are actually pretty safe?

Good. So much perceived risk is overstated. And so much real risk is understated.

9points

General Stukov 6 months ago (edited)

I have to stress this, unless you are handy with repairwork with vehicles and did extensive research do not mess with the breaks, engine, electrical systems. You will get hurt. Jackstands, proper equipment, do your research and understand that if you screw up you will have to take it by the shop anyways.

7points

Freya the Wanderer 6 months ago

Pit bulls. Properly bred and raised, they can be sweethearts.

5points

General Stukov 6 months ago

A lifetime ago i used to live in low income housing and i did pc repair work for a buddy of mine. Real good guy but he had issues since he was a weed dealer. Had to protect himself. He had an ak behind his door and a pretty big pit. He was like, "normally i don't let people just knock on my door" and his big pit came right over to me and started licking me and quite happy to be around me. He was just shocked and i told him i had no ill will, I'm no cop i just was an ol school pot smoker that wanted to enjoy some extended payed time off. He said, "she's never done that before man... you're cool people". After that we became great friends and he was really trying to turn his life around and to my knowledge he did, has a sweet little girl, the pit is still quite happy and sweet with everyone now and he's actually got a really good job doing something he loves.

DB 6 months ago (edited)

The only thing dangerous about vaccines was that the Fauci-ites thought it made them invincible.

Carol LeMay 6 months ago

I lost count of the number of idiots I had to tell to back off and get out of my face. "Oh but I had the shot".Yeah, well that doesn't make you bulletproof. Keep your distance.

8points

People Share 31 Things That Seem Dangerous But Actually Aren’t That Bad

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