Fear is an emotional response to impending danger, that is tied to anxiety. Behavioral theorists, like Watson and Ekman, have both suggested that fear, along with a few other basic emotions (e.g., joy and anger), is a trait innate to most higher functioning organisms. ^{[citation needed]} Fear is a survival mechanism, and usually occurs in response to a specific negative stimulus. For other uses, see Emotion (disambiguation). ... Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). ... John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878–September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, after doing research on animal behavior. ... Paul Ekman (born 1934) is a psychologist and has been a pioneer in the study of emotions and facial expressions. ... For other uses, see Emotion (disambiguation). ... Look up joy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the emotion. ... Look up stimulus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Varieties

Fear can be distinguished into serious fear, metus gravis, and trifling fear, metus levis. ^{[citation needed]} Serious fear is a response to some formidable impending peril, while trifling fear arises from confrontation with inconsequential danger.

Fear can be described by different terms in accordance with its relative degrees. Personal fear varies extremely in degree from mild caution to extreme phobia and paranoia. Fear is related to a number of emotional states including worry, anxiety, terror, fright, paranoia, horror, panic (social and personal), persecution complex and dread. A police caution is an alternative to prosecution available to be administered by the police in the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Phobia (disambiguation). ... For other senses of this word, see paranoia (disambiguation). ... We dont have an article called Worry Start this article Search for Worry in. ... Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). ... Fear is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, real or not. ... For other senses of this word, see paranoia (disambiguation). ... Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. ... Panic is the primal urge to run and hide in the face of imminent danger. ... A persecution complex is a term given to an array of psychologically complex behaviours, that specifically deals with the perception of being persecuted, for various possible reasons. ... Dread is the name for a revolutionary new weapons system. ...

Fears may be a factor within a larger social network, wherein personal fears are synergetically compounded as mass hysteria. — Not to be confused with social network services such as MySpace, etc. ... Mass hysteria, also called collective hysteria or collective obsessional behavior, is the sociopsychological phenomenon of the manifestation of the same or similar hysterical symptoms by more than one person. ...

• Paranoia is a term used to describe a psychosis of fear, described as a heightened perception of being persecuted, false or otherwise. This degree of fear often indicates that one has changed their normal behavior in radical ways, and may have become extremely compulsive. Sometimes, the result of extreme paranoia is a phobia.

• Distrust in the context of interpersonal fear, is sometimes explained as the inward feeling of caution, usually focused towards a person, representing an unwillingness to trust in someone else. Distrust is not a lack of faith or belief in someone, but a feeling of warning towards someone or something questionable or unknown. For example, one may "distrust" a stranger who acts in a way that is perceived as "odd." Likewise one may "distrust" the safety of a rusty old bridge across a 100 ft drop.

• Terror refers to a pronounced state of fear - which usually occurs before the state of horror - when someone becomes overwhelmed with a sense of immediate danger. Also, it can be caused by perceiving the (possibly extreme) phobia. As a consequence, terror overwhelms the person to the point of making irrational choices and non-typical behavior.

Fear can also affect the subconscious and unconscious mind, most notably through nightmares. For other senses of this word, see paranoia (disambiguation). ... Distrust is a formal way of not trusting any one party too much in a situation of grave risk or deep doubt. ... A police caution is an alternative to prosecution available to be administered by the police in the United Kingdom. ... Look up trust in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up warning in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Warning signs, such as this one, can improve safety awareness. ... Horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. ... The current usage of the term nightmare refers to a dream which causes the sleeper a strong unpleasant emotional response. ...

Causes

Although fear is an innate response, objects of fear can be learned. This has been studied in psychology as fear conditioning, beginning with Watson's Little Albert experiment in 1920. In this study, an 11-month-old boy was conditioned to fear a white rat in the laboratory. In the real world, fear may also be acquired by a traumatic accident. For example, if a child falls into a well and struggles to get out, he or she may develop a fear of wells, enclosed spaces (claustrophobia) or of water (hydrophobia). Fear conditioning is the method by which organisms learn to fear new stimuli. ... The Little Albert experiment was an experiment showing empirical evidence of classical conditioning. ... Claustrophobia is an anxiety disorder that involves the fear of enclosed or confined spaces. ... Bold text Hydrophobis is: Hydrophobia, a set of symptoms of the later stages of a rabies infection, in which the victim has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst. ...

Researchers have found that certain fears (e.g. animals, heights) are much more common than others (e.g. flowers, clouds). They are also much easier to induce in the laboratory. It is possible that those fears associated with increased odds of survival in our ancestors evolved over time by natural selection. This phenomenon has been called preparedness. Physiologically, the fear response is linked to activity in the amygdala of the limbic system. Darwins illustrations of beak variation in the finches of the Galápagos Islands, which hold 13 closely related species that differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. ... In psychology, preparedness is a concept developed by Martin Seligman (1971) to explain why certain associations are learned more readily than others. ... Look up Amygdala in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The limbic system (Latin limbus: border or edge) includes the structures in the human brain involved in emotion, motivation, and emotional association with memory. ...

While fear is most commonly associated with physical conditions or objects, in humans fear can also be inspired by more abstract concepts. The fear of losing control, for example, is a commonly referenced condition, as is fear of ridicule or social censure. These types of fear tend not to have the same physiological effects as fears of the more immediate physical world, however they have similar behavioural outcomes, and can affect an individual on a far longer timescale than would typically be expected of a fear of a physical object.

Philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti said that thinking is the root cause of fear. Thinking about a painful incident in the past projects the fear of having the pain repeated again in the future. Fear is also related to pleasure. Thinking with the images of past pleasure, thought imagines that one may not have that pleasure repeated in the future; so thought engenders fear. Thought tries to sustain pleasure and thereby nourishes fear. Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti, (May 12, 1895–February 17, 1986) was a well-known writer and speaker on fundamental philosophical and spiritual subjects, such as the purpose of meditation, human relationships, and how to enact positive change in global society. ...

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]} In the early 20th century, many people feared polio, a disease which cripples the body part it affects, leaving the body part immobilized for the rest of one's life. Greek anatome, from ana-temnein, to cut up), is the branch of biology that deals with the structure and organization of living things; thus there is animal anatomy (zootomy) and plant anatomy (phytonomy). ... Poliomyelitis (polio), or infantile paralysis, is a viral paralytic disease. ...

Characteristics

Behavioral

In fear, one may go through various emotional stages. A good example of this is the cornered rat, which will try to run away until it is finally cornered by its predator, at which point it will become belligerent and fight back with heavy aggression until it either escapes or is captured. Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ...

The same goes for most animals. Humans can become very intimidated by fear; causing them to go along with another's wishes without caring about their own input. They can also become equally violent, and can even become deadly; it is an instinctive reaction caused by rising adrenaline levels rather than a consciously thought-out decision. This is why in many cases the full penalty cannot be made in cases of the court of law. Intimidation is generally used in the meaning of criminal threatening. ... For other uses, see Instinct (disambiguation). ... “Adrenaline” redirects here. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... This article is about courts of law. ...

The facial expression of fear includes the following components:

• One's eyes widen (out of anticipation for what will happen next)
• The pupils dilate (to take in more light)
• The upper lip rises
• The brows draw together
• Lips stretch horizontally.

Physiological

The physiological effects of fear can be better understood from the perspective of the sympathetic nervous responses (fight-or-flight), as compared to parasympathetic response, which is a more relaxed state. This article or section should include material from Fight-or-flight The flight or fight response, also called the acute stress response, was first described by Walter Cannon in the 1920s as a theory that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system. ...

• muscles used for physical movement are tightened and primed with oxygen in preparation for a physical fight or flight response.

• perspiration occurs due to blood being shunted from body's viscera to the peripheral parts of the body. Blood that is shunted from the viscera to the rest of the body will transfer, along with oxygen and nutrients, heat, prompting perspiration to cool the body.

• the sensory organs are modified (or redirected) to deal with events that have evolutionarily been the most likely to cause harm. For example, the dilation of the pupils and relaxation of the lens, allowing more light to enter the eye, which is more conducive to far vision. Or fine body hair standing up to alert one to creeping insects, etc.

• when the stimulus is shocking or abrupt, a common reaction is to cover or otherwise protect vulnerable parts of the anatomy, particularly the face and head.

• when a fear stimulus occurs unexpectedly, the victim of the fear response could possibly jump or give a small start.

• the person's heart rate and heartbeat may increase.

Sweating (also called perspiration or sometimes transpiration) is the loss of a watery fluid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and urea in solution, that is secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. ... In anatomy, the viscera are the internal organs of an animal, in particular the internal organs of the head, thorax and abdomen. ...

Moral and legal issues

Fear may be a consideration in determining the wrongness of acts, in some views. Actions done under stress of fear, unless of course it be so intense as to have dethroned reason, are accounted the legitimate progeny of the human will, or are, as the theologians say, simply voluntary, and therefore imputable. The reason is obvious, such acts lack neither adequate advertence nor sufficient consent, even though the latter be elicited only to avoid a greater evil or one conceived to be greater. Inasmuch, however, as they are accompanied by a more or less vehement repugnance, they are said to be in a limited and partial sense involuntary.

Since fear diminishes freedom of action, contracts entered into through fear may be judged invalid; similarly fear sometimes excuses from the application of the law in a particular case; it also excuses from the penalty attached to an act contrary to the law. The cause of fear is found in oneself or in a natural cause (intrinsic fear) or it is found in another person (extrinsic fear). Fear may be grave, such for instance as would influence a steadfast man, or it may be slight, such as would affect a person of weak will. In order that fear may be considered grave, certain conditions are requisite: the fear must be grave in itself, and not merely in the estimation of the person fearing; it must be based on a reasonable foundation; the threats must be possible of execution; the execution of the threats must be inevitable. Fear, again, is either just or unjust, according to the justness or otherwise of the reasons which lead to the use of fear as a compelling force. Reverential fear is that which may exist between superiors and their subjects. Grave fear diminishes willpower but cannot be said to totally take it away, except in some very exceptional cases. Slight fear (metus levis) is not considered even to diminish the will power, hence the legal expression "Foolish fear is not a just excuse".

See also

For other uses, see Angst (disambiguation). ... An appeal to fear (also called argumentum ad metum or argumentum in terrorem) is a logical fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for his or her idea by playing on existing fears and prejudices. ... Culture of fear is a term proposed in a variety of sociological theses, which argue that feelings of fear and anxiety predominate in contemporary public discourse and relationships, changing how we relate to one another as individuals and as democratic agents. ... A woman showing disgust. ... Charles Darwins theory of evolution has made it clear that the strong survive to reproduce while the weak die off and are driven to extinction. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... “Guilty” redirects here. ... Hope and Fear is an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the final episode of the fourth season. ... Island tameness is the tendency of many populations and species of animals living on isolated islands to lose their wariness of potential predators, particularly of large animals. ... The Litany against fear is a fictional incantation spoken by characters in Frank Herberts Dune and its sequels in order to focus their minds in times of peril. ... Panic is the primal urge to run and hide in the face of imminent danger. ... For other uses, see Phobia (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Night Terror. ... It has been suggested that the section Shame campaign from the article Smear campaign be merged into this article or section. ... A strategy of tension (Italian: ) is a way to control and manipulate public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, as well as false flag terrorist actions (including bombings). ...

Further reading

• Joanna Bourke (2005), Fear: a cultural history, Virago
• Corey Robin (2004), Fear: the history of a political idea, Oxford University Press
• Duenwald, Mary. "The Psychology of ...Facial Expressions" Discovery Magazine Vol. 26 NO. 1
• Krishnamurti, J. (1995), On Fear, Harper Collins, ISBN 0-06-251014-2

Corey Robin is an american liberal political theorist, journalist and professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Fear

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Look up fear in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Quotations on Fear
• A Buddhist View on Fear
• The Smell of Fear, a Research Study
• Catholic Encyclopedia "Fear (in Canon Law)"
• Catholic Encyclopedia "Fear (from a Moral Standpoint)"
• How Stuff Works - Fear
• Fearless News - An online community collecting statistics on fear in mass media