ABSTRACT
This chapter explains attitude of denial towards remote threats. It shows how the varying role of denial in relation to different temporal phases of a disastrous event: in relation to a remote threat, to an imminent threat, to the impact of extreme danger, and to the phase of retrospect. Certain attitudes towards a remote threat appear in the findings of a survey made in 1946 of Americans’ feelings and forecasts about the atomic bomb. Important factors in attitudes towards future dangers are estimates of whether anything can be done about them, and whether the individual himself is in a position to do anything. In respect to the bomb, the same survey indicated that expectations of its being used against the United States (US) were frequently combined with the counteracting expectation that before this would happen the US would have developed an adequate defense.
