A Non-Evolutionary Take on Why Fear Works (4+ Part Series)
A post-evolutionary cultural exploration of why fear works like a rhizome.
I think the evolutionary interpretation of fear, as a way to protect us, is extremely lacking. Although there is value and understanding fear, as a way to protect ourselves from possible threats, we must also look at it through a multi-dimensional perceptive lens. Here are the four dimensions of fear and how they interact. The nature of fear is that within the field of these dimensions, they can intersect. This article is part 1 of 4 on how fear operates in different contexts.
Today, we will dive deeper into the social/cultural dynamics of how fear operates. For now, here is a preview of the four types of fear. I use the word dimension because fear extends outward and onward and is layered upon many other factors. Fear isn’t as powerful alone - but, when it has contributors, it becomes more than just the appearance of something to be afraid of.
Four Dimensions of Fear:
Emotional
Culture
Physical
Abstract
It does not help us to simply just rely on any one-dimensional interpretation of anything that we refer to as an experience. This is where the scientific fields I work in are suffering - there is an assumption that emotions tend to be singular rather than multiplicity
So, for us to truly grasp how fear operates in different environments, we have to first accept, that evolution is no longer the arbiter of understanding ubiquity of emotional dynamism.
As the famed biologist, Robert Sapolsky states:“Fear is the vigilance and the need to escape from something real.” This is a popular one-sided view of how fear has developed within the human mind over thousands of years.
However, this one-tone approach to what is happening and how fear is used to map out human behavior or social change is yet to be studied in different robust environments. Fear is not innate to being human, but it can be trained over time to feel like its a part of nature, when in reality, since we tend to be conditioned by neurochemicals - it CAN appear that fear is natural to being humans because we receive neurotransmitters like dopamine for repeating that emotion. This is in no way to prove that fear is natural to us, just that the neurochemistry within contours and shapes our definitions of what it means to be afraid of something.
FEAR WORKS LIKE A RHIZOME.
Although Sapolsky is not wrong in his evolutionary assessment, there are other rhizomatic characteristics that fear takes on, depending on where and how it is utilized. Rhizomes, like we’ve shared, work in multiples rather than singles.
Fear does not just rely on neurochemicals, but also our own social or personal schemas. In society, — the schema is much larger and historical. But, history is better understood as another layer of schema — history is more about identity and less about events that happened in the past.
A society is based upon how it collectively interprets the schemas it accepts - but, even within these identity maps are the coordinates for what to fear and what to pursue.
As a behavioral scientist, we must look at this emotion and protective neural molecular process as a way in which society maintains a certain identity over another.
SOCIETAL FEAR
If society—-the news, pop, cultural events, or even social morals are employed, as an integrated component to the emotion of fear, we can then understand that social events like the above, are used to create a culture that fears identity change.
Hence why, pop, and cultural artifacts, like television shows, or even consumerism, can also feed into the same type of fears and essentially reinforce the bandwagon effect.
This is one of many levels of how fear can be used to maintain a sense of cohesive identity. Even if the identity is not helpful towards society’s progress, fear maintains an appearance of equilibrium.
Fear, as a tool across cultures tends to be used to maintain the appearance of homeostasis. Fear then becomes one major cohesive element in building a sense of community. If we all have something to fear, then we have something to fear together. Society has made it taboo to have our experiences without a side of fear. So much so, that many people report that they feel guilty if they aren’t afraid of something.
The evolutionary understanding of fear tends to just focus on the individual understanding, and experience of how fear works with environments where threats are either inherent or potential.
In society, although this operates the same, the way, in which many societies operate, is that they must create potential threats regularly. Let’s correct that. They must create the appearance of potential threats regularly.
So, things that might have no essence of being a threat, have to now be perceived as a possible threat. This is also referred to as loss aversion.
Loss aversion is the possibility of a threat. If we think there is a chance that someone will break into our house, then that will create a fear that will also create a behavior in reaction to that possibility. Hence, why, in a consumer culture like America, selling people house insurance becomes an important thing. Even if the so-called threats are not really that high.
Fear is about the potential of threat, not necessarily the actual threat. This is where I differ from Sapolsky. All fears tend to have a virtual quality to them. Virtual meaning potential. Not yet real.
So, one of the major levels of how fear operates is identity coherence. This is one of four major areas in which fear is not only used but naturally works within different environments.
FEAR & COHERENCE.
It gives a person or a society, a sense of coherence within how they identify themselves. Hence why, some societies are slower to change than others. Just look at America’s historical relationship towards race.
Identity is a way in which we measure all of our own beliefs, emotions, and even the memories we keep repeating, as a way to give us a sense of solid identity. We will likely repeat certain behaviors over and again because we identify as that particular person who behaves in that certain manner.
in one sense, it’s less about the behavior and more about the power of identity over and above the desire for change. This change can happen on a personal level or a cultural level. But the fear remains the same. People, fear change, not because they can’t change behaviors, but because they don’t want to change their identity.
There is a sense of pejorative joy that comes with repeating the same behaviors over and again, even if we are aware of the fact that these behaviors do not serve us. We would rather repeat the same behavior, than, do the possibly frustrating, work of finding ways to alter our identity, and ultimately the patterns that reinforce the current sense of identity.
Change must be incremental. It’s never an A to B. It’s always A1 to A2, that eventually leads to B. This is how true change occurs. If we seek out revolutionary change, socially or personally, it must look like an incremental revolution. Not some aggressive overturn. That is just fear. The fear that needs to rush beyond the gift of intellectual awareness. These types of change might seem radical when implemented, but ensure that longevity will not remain with measurable change.
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I am a professional, business and life coach. I use behavioral science, neuroscience, psychology, and social psychology to help businesses and individuals achieve their desired goals. Every technique and strategy is backed by science. I have worked with the United Nations, Los Angeles, film companies, national hospitals, international, NGOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, and individuals.
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