Interesting, but simple to explain because people tend to operate on unthinkability rather than hazard.

While the odds of dying in a car accident are (much) higher than dying in a plane accident, it's unthinkable that so many people die simultaneously from a method of transportation that intuitively feels less safe than a box rolling on the ground.

The only exception on that chart is the asteroid impact, which can probably be discounted because it's for all intents and purposes impossible in our lifetime.

While I think that your description is a bit hard to understand you are on to the right thing.

It is basically all about the relatively new discipline of behavioral economics.

If you have 45 minutes to spare you should watch Daniel Kahneman's nobel prize lecture on the subject here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2002/...

Definitely worth the time...