In this book I forge a framework for exploring people's responses to risks including epidemic illnesses, nuclear threats, industrial accidents, wars and hurricanes. The risks which form the focus of the book threaten to strike large numbers of people quite suddenly. However, I show that there is continuity between how these mass threats and the more commonplace risks, such as having a car accident or heart disease, are apprehended.

The human response to such dangers has been explored in disciplines ranging from anthropology to cultural theory, from history to psychology. One common finding arises: people respond ‘not me’, ‘not my group’, ‘others are to blame’ when initially faced with risks. This book examines the link made between risks and ‘the other’. It demonstrates that people tend to attain a sense of personal invulnerability to risk by externalising the threat. It also explores the effect of this process on those ‘others’ who are linked to the potential danger.

The roots of the ‘not me – others’ phenomenon are viewed differently in each discipline. The social scientific study of people's responses to risk tends to focus on either their narrow cognitive or their broad socio-cultural roots. My approach slots into the gap between these two poles. It explains the subjective experience of risk, connecting this experience to broader social factors. It demonstrates how social forces become sedimented in inner experiences, how the ‘we’ becomes contained within the ‘I’.