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The Psychology of Fear (Part 2)
By harveyrobbins | July 22, 2002
There is a system in the old part of the brain called the amygdala. It controls, in part, our fear factor (fight or flight). In the Neanderthal days it would alert us to real physical dangers that we could respond to with a big club. Once the source of our fear was dead or incapacitated, we cold relax once again. As our civilization progressed, it became unacceptable to club the source of your fear inside your organization - although about 1400 people were killed last year in workplace violence from people clubbing others. So, without an outlet to eliminate the fear, we build up the fear as internal tension/stress that gets converted into anger at oneself and others. We need to get angry at someone/something as a release mechanism.
Fear is a gut response. It causes irrational reactionary thinking. The solution (barring beating someone with a club or using an AK-47) is to use your head - the rational part of your brain, the cerebral cortex. Think and act rationally.
There is a concept that drives human behavior called “closure”. Simply put, when there is some missing data in our environment, we tend to fill in the blanks. The only problem is we tend to fill in the blanks with negative information, not positive. Worst case scenarios, for example. It’s a protection mechanism that keeps us from getting hurt too badly. We fill in the missing information with negative possibilities, then react against these negatives. Prepare for the worst, lower your expectations. These are both irrational thoughts that prevent us from moving forward. The good news, though, is that simply knowing about this concept can change your behavior. Rather than looking at the dark side of every situation, look on the positive (or at least the most realistic) side.
Sure, it’s true that the world is currently experiencing a sea change. Radical Islam’s mission is to take down civilization as we know it. They’re angry at the world for:
1. not seeing the world through their eyes;
2. revenge for past attempts to persecute Muslims and/or demean / defile / misunderstand their religious practices;
3. there’s even a theory that radical Muslims may feel slighted by Abraham (Islam developed through Ismael, son of Abraham, who was never given the credibility or recognition as Isaac (Abraham’s legitimate heir), from whom Jacob was born and renamed Israel. The Jewish/Muslim conflict really boils down, then, to a family feud - a fight for legitimacy in the eyes of God), and;
4. scores of other issues as numerous and there are combatants.
But what’s the real chance you’ll be directly harmed by a terrorist act; pretty remote - much less than getting killed in a car accident, for example. The world has a much more talented law enforcement / intelligence network than has been portrayed in the media. What is the percentage of CEO thugs and thieves versus the number of truly gifted and talented people in those positions in our country’s organizations? Pretty small.
Our economy is strong. It will cycle out of this natural downturn. We may be diverting our attention temporarily because of our irrational fears about terrorism, but this too will pass. Life will change for sure. Dramatically in the short term, then revert to a slighter, more permanent change. But life has always been on the move. We will adapt. Look at where we were 100 years ago. Look at where we’ll be 100 years from now. Once this accounting debacle has been cleared away and we can look at the true and genuine strength of our economy, Dow 15,000 seems much more probable than Dow 5000. I’m optimistic. How about you?
Topics: Psychology At Work |