Fear

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Western society is currently dominated by the politics of fear. We fear terrorist attacks; we fear losing our jobs; we fear discrimination, harassment and/or physical violence on the basis of our ethnicity, sexual orientation, nationality, sex, spiritual and/or religious beliefs, gender, relationship orientation, ability and so on; we fear not keeping up with the Joneses; we fear not being accepted by our families and/or communities; we fear natural disasters; we fear missing out on tickets to see Kylie Minogue in concert. Sometimes these fears are well-grounded; frequently, however, they are not. The biological bases to the way we assess risks, which have served us reasonably well for hundreds of thousands of years, turn out to be far less than adequate in the context of contemporary Western society. This has often been noted by security expert Bruce Schneier: two of his pieces i highly recommend in this regard are "Rare Risk and Overreactions" and "The Psychology of Security".

Recently released research has shed more light on the psychological mechanisms involved in risk assessment:

When the artificial predator was in the distance, the researchers observed activity in lower parts of the prefrontal cortex just behind the eyebrows. Activity in this area – known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex – increases during anxiety and helps control strategies on how to respond to the threat.

However, as the predator moved closer, the brain activity shifted to a region of the brain responsible for more primitive behaviour, namely the periaqueductal grey. The periaqueductal grey is associated with quick-response survival mechanisms, which include fight, flight and freezing. This region is also associated with the body's natural pain killer, opioid analgesia, preparing the body to react to pain.

Dr Dean Mobbs from UCL, lead author on the study, says: "Without fear, animals would not react to threats. This is a poor survival strategy and makes it more likely that the animal will be eaten and not pass on its genes.

"The most efficient survival strategy will depend on the level of threat we perceive. This makes sense as sometimes being merely wary of a threat is enough, but at other times we need to react quickly. The closer a threat gets, the more impulsive your response will be – in effect, the less free will you will have."

In other words, the more imminent the threat appears to be, the less likely our brains are to deal with the situation rationally. Consequently, people whose psychologies are dominated by fear of imminent danger are easier to manipulate into supporting short-term actions which aren't necessarily in their long-term interests. In this context, the following quote from Hermann Goering bears repeating:

"[T]he people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Countering this manipulation requires us to do (at least) two things:

• Learn to recognise the feeling of fear / insecurity when it arises.


• Upon recognition, ask oneself: "Who benefits from my fear? Who loses? What information do i need to make a more balanced assessment of the actual possible risks? To what extent are my feelings of fear justified?"

Basically: Think for yourself, so that others aren't doing your thinking for you.