Much of this line of thinking comes from the way most people's brain's process things, particularly with regard to occurrences that are not necessarily set in stone and that they are unable to truly quantify. People take whatever info they hear on the radio, or see on websites, twitter feeds, and the t.v., and that worst (or best) case scenario becomes instantly ingrained within their conscious. The weather/ news outlets are partially to blame as well. I think that the producers and those behind the scenes know how easily the public can get hooked on an event, especially if the extreme outcome is laid out there. When Michael was making landfall I was at the gym, and within a 90 minute span the storm went from cat 4 to cat 3...but, all that CNN was noting was that the storm made landfall "Near Cat 5". This headline went on for a few hours after that. The whole, "Near Cat 5" was almost all they were focused on. They WANTED so badly to keep using that has the headline. Just say Category 4.
On the other hand there are reasonable minded people who are able to take the data and logically sort through what is given, and knowing that forecasting is not an exact science not become so biased towards one outcome or another.