The science of fear

Fear - it’s one of the things that keeps human beings alive.  This natural response has been working its magic ever since we first evolved the capacity to think.  We may not like it, but without our ability to be frightened, the human species would almost certainly be extinct by now.  But fear is something that we don’t enjoy. 

Despite how much it helps us on a daily basis - warning us to look before crossing the street, for example - we still hate the way it affects us.  The truth of the matter is that fear is so powerful that is overrides the other parts of our brain, forcing us to sometimes make what would appear to be idiotic decisions.  And while mastery of fear can be an asset, recognition of it is just as valuable to survival.

Those who understand fear have been using it for ages to manipulate the people around them.  Ever since the first civilization was formed, leaders have used fear to motivate and control the population.  Think of the phenomenon of 9/11 in the United States.  Immediately following the attack, the fear of terrorists prompted citizens to accept many changes to national security that just a week before would have had large portions of the population in an uproar.  But the presence of threat allowed those changes to take place with relative ease.

But how does fear truly work?  Scientists have worked it out somewhat, connecting the fear response to a region of the brain known as the amygdala.  But a recent study has shown that we may know less about this human response than we first thought.  By studying a group of people who have a particular brain defect that does not allow them to process fear in the mind, researchers were able to figure out that fear also stems from the physical body, sans thought.

These test subjects had damage to their amygdalas due to a disease known as Urbach-Wiethe Disease.  This meant that no matter what they encountered, the brain simply did not induce a fear response.  So instead, scientists tried flooding their bodies with carbon dioxide to induce a feeling of suffocation.  The result was panic, a feeling that these test subjects hadn’t felt in earnest for some time.

So apparently, there’s another part of the brain at work here, one that scientists are still unaware of.  The ramifications are interesting, yet I’m feeling a bit of fear myself over the potential of such knowledge.  By controlling fear, we could be on the path to creating a new breed of super soldiers.  Or worse, this knowledge could be used to control the fear responses of entire populations and thus prevent them from thinking rationally about what their leaders are doing.

So, as it turns out, the knowledge of fear may very well be something to be afraid of.

Scared Baby photo courtesy of Phillip Capper via Wikicommons