Why does 'nuclear' scare us so much?

South Korean environmental activists demonstrate to oppose nuclear power in Seoul on Monday. STORY HIGHLIGHTSRisk equals the probability of consequences multiplied by the severity of consequencesPeople generally think about risk from an emotional perspectiveSome say our fear of nuclear energy dates back before radioactivity was discoveredDr. Drew Pinsky is coming to HLN with a new nightly show discussing extreme human behavior, with a focus not on what happened, but why it happened. The "Dr. Drew" show premieres Monday, April 4, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HLN.

(CNN) -- Say it aloud: NUCLEAR. How does it make you feel? Many people have negative associations with the word, feelings that have been magnified since a massive earthquake and tsunami crippled a power plant called Fukushima Daiichi in Japan on March 11.

Health authorities continue to emphasize that the minuscule levels of radioactivity drifting over from Japan to the United States will not even come close to harming human health. These are trace amounts, and not anything any of us should worry about.

Yet plenty of the worried on the West Coast ran out to buy potassium iodide to counter the effects of radioactive iodine, even though there's not nearly enough of this substance in the air to affect human health. And taking potassium iodide unnecessarily can come with its own harmful side effects.

If there's no real danger to Americans in the U.S., why the fear? People generally think about risk from an emotional perspective, rather than from a rational one, says Richard John, associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California.

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