Risk telescoping is one way people respond to perceived risk in their lives. This combines is an amplification on a narrow focus with exclusion of peripheral vision.
Features of risk telescoping:
(1) exaggerated concern about a risk, with the perceived risk far out of proportion to the actual
(2) topic is often dramatic but oversimplified, misunderstood and/or misrepresented
(3) associated with a real sense of fear or dread, typically fed by a person's underlying emotional state (anxiety, depression, etc.)
Negative consequences:
(1) neglect of risks that are much more likely to occur
(2) unnecessary and wasted response to an event that is unlikely to be encountered
(3) makes the person susceptible to manipulation by another for his or her own gain
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