Talk:Fear

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Contents

[edit] For all the listers out there

The place for lists is in the article -phob- and not elsewhere... Thanks. Undead Herle King (talk) 22:25, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quoting Yoda

Should we really be quoting yoda?

What do you have against Yoda? -Whats a question?

[edit] Article

This is a dictionary entry. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. If you're going to turn a word like this into an article, or some semblance of an article, please make sure you have something more constructive to say than a simple definition.

Removed:SV(talk) 01:23, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC) "The opposite is confidence. Self-confidence is confidence in oneself, i.e. in one's abilities and worth, including the abilitiy to cope with one's limitations and problems. Unjustified confidence can cause problems."

Why does self confidence redirect here? --Tubby 19:16, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

it would be great if there was a paragraph about how fear can be used to manipulate someone or a group (or an entire population(using say, terrorism by both the terrorist and the governement))

The first paragraph is over-simplified, while the very next paragraph is OVER-complex. Poor flow, says I. Further, does the height of the bridge in the first example have to be so extreme?

[edit] Hebrew Definition of Fear

<Commenting on the phrase in Fear—Fear is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, whether it be real or imagined. Fear also can be described as a feeling of extreme dislike to some conditions/objects, such as: fear of darkness, fear of ghosts, etc. It is one of the basic emotions.>

The Hebrew word translated as fear is yir-aw', Gesenius's Strong's Concordance:3374— fear, reverence, holy, dreadful. The root is yaw-ray', Gesenius's Strong:3372—to fear, to revere, to frighten. Based on this etymology, the fear is like that of, say, touching an active electrical wire, fearing an undertow at the beach, or passing a red light.
The fear, or awe, stems from knowing the consequences of an act. The translation "to fear the Lord" is unfortunate; better would be "awe of the Lord". Yesselman 21:15, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A Basic Explanation of How Fear Intensifies

I'm not sure if this really belongs here, but I was just thinking about fear and I hadn't really seen this posted anywhere, so I figured I would add my two cents. Just a few notes about fear:

Fear, as a reaction, is brought about by a plethora of stimuli. Namely, anything that would cause the brain to perceive risk or danger. This is a natural evolutionary reaction in place for the sole reason of keeping the body alive.

The other part of fear relates to intensification which leads to greater fear. This natural stimulus is helpful in avoidance of damage; therefore, if perception is limited, fear will intensify and the mind will create certain possible courses of action that are designed to remove the body from a harmful situation and return them to a safe situation.

The point could be explained by an experiment as follows- tell somebody that a killer is in the neighborhood, and they'll probably get scared to a degree. After telling the subject this, tell them to cover their ears. After that, touch them and tell them to cover their ears or eyes. If they comply, tell them you're going to leave and do so. This experiment works best if the subject is not in a group of numbers, because numbers not only reduce the possiblity of damage do to overpowering, but also reduce the percentage of damage for the subject. For example, if you have 10 people together, along with a maniac who has a gun, and wants to kill one of them, the subject will have a better chance of survival than if he were the only target. Therefore, numbers reduce fear.

After the investigator leaves, they should stage a simple sound or clatter loud enough to be perceived by the subject. The subject will almost definately open their eyes, uncover their ears and look around warily, since this is an obvious danger. But WHY is it an obvious danger? Because of the association with memory. The investigator told them that a killer was supposedly nearby. The subject had most likely heard about murders before, and may have watched horror movies. Due to this, their mind probably depicted or reminded the person in question about certain events which could occur, and, as a reaction, the person became uncomfortable and probably wanted to escape to a safer situation- most likely, leaving the room with the investigator. If the subject had any type of defensive apparatus that would lead to increased safety- such as a gun, security system, or guard dog, for instance- that subject may be somewhat afraid but not nearly as afraid as the subject without the defensive measure.

The point, which has taken a long while to articulate, is as follows: Deny a human any one sense and fear will intensify. The reason for this intensification is logical- perceived dangers can do more damage and have a greater probability of doing more damage if one cannot their senses fully.

This is a pretty obvious point, but I just wanted to post it so that somebody with better writing and a more scientific explanation could put the above thoughts into sequence. Hope I didn't post this erroneously or in a wrong spot... Robinson0120 23:47, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article structure

This article could use quite a bit of clean up.

I would suggest that the first thing that is listed should be the medical/physical description of fear, including a brief overview of the reactions that the various hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, the steroid cortisol etc.) each cause, the role of the amygdala etc.

[edit] A comment on fear

I was doing my daily philosophizing and a thought about fear occured to me. Fear can either stop us from doing something, or it makes us do something. For example, we would not go up to an 8 foot gorilla and punch it in the face because our fear prevents us from doing it. On the other hand most of us go to college because we want good jobs, we fear to be bums and starve. In the first instance fear stopped our action, and in the second it was the catalyst for action. It struck me then that this whole world is built on fear. Every advance we have made can be traced back to fear. I don't like fear and have spent many years trying to get it out of my system, but I guess I should be thankful because I can be on this computer because of fear. Can someone else post their thoughts on this.

After that there should be a section on the evolutionary theories behind why fear exists and how it developed. Next should be a few of the more prominant psychological and philosophical analyses regarding the emotion.

Finally it should be wrapped up with a list of the more well-known / prevelant fears that humans experience.

What your examples are describing is not exactly fear, just a lack of stupidity. A person wouldn't punch a Gorrila because they know they can't win, rather than from fear. You can KNOW something is dangerous without fear of it, and thus avoid it. With the bum vs. good jobs, this also comes into play. You want the best for yourself, naturally, and would seek out any means to get it. This means that your not afraid of becoming a bum, you just don't want to. In any case that I can think of, fear can be overwritten and rendered obsolete by simple intelligence. Thus, only those without the knowledge or animals without the capability would require fear. I can conclude from this that fear, for intelligent beings at least, is determental to survival, or at least useless.

EX: A man sees a truck barreling towards him at top speed, but instead of dodging out of the way, he is frozen by fear and allows the truck to hit him. EX: You see it in horror movies all the time, the victim is being attacked by the killer, and instead of running or fighting, the victim just stands there screaming or cowering until the killer gets them. Fear is just one of many emotions that were evolved for primitive animals that is determental to survival for sentient beings.24.118.227.213 07:15, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] needless sentence

"In 2005, University of Toronto researchers traced the origin of memories to the prefrontal cortex of the brain"

What does that have to do with fear?

it's got nothing to do with it whatso ever!

[edit] Biological reason for fear

Does anyone know where in the brain fear is said to originate ie, which part of the brain is the main area where the precursors for fear are created? I was told once it was the primitive portion of the brain but I don't know what it is called, I assume it is near the neo-cortex, but being the title of the neo-cortex is basically new cortex, I assume there is an old cortex?

I think the hippocampus is somehow involved in this...gotta look up me textbook, but god is it looooooooong.

Amygdala!

[edit] basis of all emotions

I agree with a previous comment on fear being the basis of all human emotion. Despite the numerous names given to the various emotions, each emotion can be placed on a continuum between fear and comfort, or complete lack of fear. This applies to any emotion, whether it is confidence (believing you will not experience fear), or frustration (being unable to remove fear and achieve comfort). I know this may sound peculiar, but this is not a new idea. Even the movie Donnie Darko has made reference to fear being the root of all emotion to some degree. Perhaps someone more knowledgable in human emotion could expand upon this idea in the future.

Sure. This image is a link to an emotion theory Subjations.
In it fear is simply defined as excessive worry. I know this doesn't sound
intuitive but I can explain. Fear is one of the anxiety emotions on the unhappiness side.
The list of these are concern, worry, fear and terror. Worry is the anticipation of
unhappiness. Concern is mild worry. Fear is excessive worry and terror is extreme fear.
To prove this point all one has to do is take a sentence with one of these emotions in it
and substitute one of the other of these emotions in this list in its place. The sentence
will always still work. For example, "I am afraid of the bear." could be, "I am
concerned of the bear," or, "I am worried of the bear," or, "I am terrified of
the bear." These statements are similar, they only differ in intensity.
Many others also believe fear is the basis of all human emotion. If you like you can see this
here http://changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/basic%20emotions.htm
From the POV of the discussion above however, this is not so. If anything one would say
that worry is more fundamental than fear is. JHuber 21:25, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
That's a very interesting theory, but it sounds like original research to me. If there are substantial scientific sources that think the same way, than of course such views may be added to the article. On the other hand, I'm quite sure substantial scientific sources exist that do NOT see the spectrum of human emotions as such one-dimensional scale between fear and comfort. How about melancholy or pitty? Anyway; as long as you have sources for it, why not add it to the article? But be sure to say something along the lines of "Some think that..." + Sources! rather than just presenting it as a given fact. RagingR2 09:28, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
There are no scientific sources about emotion theory. Emotions are not measureable.
I did include examples to prove my point, you'll just have to reason for yourself their
validity. If you have a better idea, let's hear it. This is a talk page. JHuber 20:58, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weasel Words

There are some weasel words at the beginning of the article.

"Some philosophers... other thinkers... still others..."

Where are the specifics?

[edit] theory?

no discussion of theories about fear?

[edit] Degrees and Causes

Degrees of Fear

Perhaps the mildest form of fear is Care, in that we take care to avoid pain or suffering in ourselves or others, such as child care. If we should fail to take due care we may be guilty at law.


Causes of Fear The experience of pain is a classic cause of fear. Some of these fears are based on classical conditioning. This fear is adapting or phasic (operating similar to phasic receptor) and the example of bombing in World War II is an good example where the initial fear is extinguished because the stimulus, the bomb blast, was not matched with pain or suffering (at least by those gossipping on street corners).

But some primitive, and primary evolutionary fears requires no previous painful experience or conditioning; although, to develop into a phobia, they often involve un-associated pain even some hours from the exposure (that is, not contiguous as required in classical conditioning). These are often the source of clinical phobias. Examples evolutionary fears are fear of suffocation (claustrophobia), abandonment and agoraphobia, heights, deep water, animals and insects, and helplessness (Fear of flying in an aeroplane is thought to be a secondary manifestation of this. Pilots can have a fear of flying if they are not the pilot. Hostage and kidnapped victims suffer this fear.) (See Martin Seligman, What You Can Change and What You Can't)


This bit in the article is pop-psych/philosophy and should be removed: Fear is the lack of love. Love of oneself and others. The root of this lack of love for self and others brings with it all the underpinnings of evil that we humans experience in our relationships (personal and groups). If you trace the root cause of all things evil you will find a deep fear of loss, loss of love in ones being which goes unsatisfied and always seeking to fill this void. But the opposite of fear is love which gives us fullfillment and peace. Letting go of fear can only be truly done by filling the void with love. Science has shown fear to be more intimately linked with survival. Love has been linked to the benefits of social groups for survival. The theory above is metaphysical and epistemically unsound:


Social inhibition also is a fear, but is probably just another manifestation fear of abandonment.

The article claims that fear is "an emotional response to impending danger", however, isn't it possible to be aware that something is dangerous without being afraid of it? Someone that is fearless (without ignorance or stupidity) is aware that he can be harmed, but does not fear the things that can harm him.24.118.227.213 05:49, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moral and Legal sections unoriginal

I was mystified by the abrupt shift in usage in the "Moral" and "Legal" considerations sections; in fact I don't believe that the average Wiki user would be interested in these sections at all outside of the context in which the text was almost directly lifted: from the Catholic Encyclopedia.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021a.htm

Words were omitted in the wiki entry but the bulk of the text is just copied. I suggest they be rewritten or simply removed.

john@camokub.net

24.148.34.16 22:36, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed quotes

Quotes belong to wikiquote. I removed the section from the article. `'mikka 23:26, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quotes

  • "Perfect love casts out fear." - The Bible - 1 John, chapter 4, verse 18
  • "From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved." - Machiavelli
  • "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin Roosevelt
  • "Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." - Dorothy Thompson
  • "Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies." - Edward Gibbon.[1]
  • "Jonathan Livingston Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull's life is so short, and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed." - Richard Bach [2]
  • "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear" - Aung San Suu Kyi
  • "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"-H.P. Lovecraft
  • "I don't know about angels, but it's fear that gives men wings."-Max Payne

In relation to courage:

  • "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."-Ambrose Redmoon
  • "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave."-Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, 1894

[edit] Someone please rewrite, remove or cite reference ...

Will someone PLEASE take the following sentence off or change it, under the section "Causes". There is no basis for it without a citation:


"The experience of fear may also be influenced by social norms and values. In 19th century Britain, one of the biggest fears was of dying poor, unmourned, unremembered, and possibly ending up on an anatomist's dissection table.[citation needed]"

[edit] fear and respect

dose fear sometimes make you respect someone

No, respect is when you enjoy someone for who they are and what they do. You will be kind to and do what a person you respect tells you out of that respect alone. On the other hand, fear just results in you doing and saying respectful things to someone out of the desire not to be harmed in some way. A classic example is a ruler that punishes everyone that opposes him; the people will do what he says simply to avoid being punished.24.118.227.213 05:43, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Learned VS Inhereted?

I'd like to see more in this article about which fears are learned and/or which fears are inhereted. I remember once reading or hearing that there are only a few fears that are inhereted in humans (if I remember correctly the fear of very loud sounds, and the fear of rapidly approaching objects), and that all other fears are learned, either by experience (fire, heights) or by social factors (spiders, snakes, skeletons). Right now I cannot find a decent source for it anywhere, but if people know more about this subject, or can find a decent scientific article about it or something like that, please contribute! Greetings, RagingR2 09:21, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Terrible introduction, recent edits, and fear's irrationality

Three topics today: Firstly, the intro is pretty bad. "Terrible" may be an overstatement, but... it just doesn't work. I'll add comments to it in {braces}.

Fear is an emotional response to impending danger, that is tied to anxiety {incorrect grammar (comma), but I don't want to change it for fear of changing the meaning. Is this even accurate?}. Most fear is usually connected to pain (i.e., some fear heights because if they fall, when they land, they will be in great pain) {unnecessary, or at least badly worded, example. But isn't fear more related to death? People aren't scared of psychopaths because of the agony of lying wounded, but because of death. And isn't there an undeniable irrationality to fear? See below}. Behavioral theorists, like Watson and Ekman, have both suggested that fear, along with a few other basic emotions (e.g., joy and anger) {this sentence is incomplete due to a sloppy removal of an uncited statement (see below). The remainder was "is a trait innate to most higher functioning organisms." To my knowledge, this is true, so we need to find a citation for it, rather than deleting it.} Fear is a survival mechanism, and usually occurs in response to a specific negative stimulus.

Secondly: some recent edits. Here's one: [1]. This person took out some uncited stuff. But the first two, at least, seem to be important, so can anyone find citations so we can restore these? Another: the "In Popular Culture" section. I think that one should go, but I'll ask for a second opinion. And another (possibly not recent): that fear-o-meter thing, and the preceding couple of paragraphs. It's completely uncited, and could really use some citations.

Number 3, there needs to be some discussion of the irrationality of fear. I know my psychology textbook discusses it, but I don't know enough (yet, anyway) to write anything in the article. People dying in violent, unusual, or spectacular ways, and people dying in numbers, are much more scary. For example, the beltway sniper attacks caused a huge wave of panic in the Washington, D.C. area, despite the fact that more people probably died commuting to and from work during the same period. The Virginia Tech shootings dominated the news (in America, at least) for a week, despite the fact that more Americans die from handguns every day than in the one incident. And, of course, there's the example of 9/11: in the months afterward, traffic fatalities spiked, and (I think) 800 people more than usual died in car crashes, rather than take an airplane. Even without 9/11, people are more scared of planes than cars, because they ride planes more rarely, and plane crashes kill a lot of people at once in a huge crash/explosion. And, of course, there's the illusion that you're safer when you're in control (in a car, for example), rather than when others are, as in a plane. Obviously, there's a lot of psychology going on with all this, and an explanation would be nice. I gave the examples (and might be able to cite them), but I can't (yet) explain them... so... any takers? Twilight Realm 22:32, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A question

This article talks about the type of fear coming from impending pain, but what about fear of say a scary movie. Being suprised by say someone dressing up as a monster, or simply a lamp falling at night. Thanks. --75.45.1.238 20:58, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Being startled, in other words. It should be discussed, I agree. I guess it could be said that something startling provokes an automated response to prepare your body for whatever it was that startled you, just in case it's dangerous--in which case it is, in a way, fear due to anticipation. But I agree, being startled is something different, which needs to be addressed. Twilight Realm (talk) 03:43, 27 November 2007 (UTC)