Worries about Ebola may be contributing to the sliding stock market. But despite all of the fear and the media coverage, it is still highly unlikely that anyone in the U.S. will be infected with Ebola.
Nevertheless, a Harvard poll found that almost 40 percent of adults think that they or an immediate family member will get sick from Ebola over the next year.
And on Thursday, schools in Texas and Ohio were closed after officials discovered that students and an adult had either been on the flight with the nurse who contracted Ebola or had had contact with her.
But the fact remains that there are more common diseases out there that can take you to a hospital and even cause death. So why are all so concerned about Ebola?
Dan Ariely says stories about Ebola in the U.S. hit all of our psychological triggers. Ariely is a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, and author of "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions."