• Question: what causes fear?

    Asked by inkysquidy to Josh on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Interesting question, it raises the point, why do we have emotions at all?

      This isn’t something I know a huge amount about, to be honest. The most obvious explanation to me is that we would have evolved to fear things because it’s probably sensible to want to get away from things which might have eaten us, attacked us, or in some other way been a threat.

      But there are also things that we fear that aren’t very likely to hurt us. I suppose that it’s possible that people have bad experiences with certain things when they were young, or perhaps they have a phobia. Fascinating stuff 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: 07stoombs

    07stoombs commented on :

    I suppose its like a survival instinct, when your scared your more ‘on edge’ so you might react to a situation better, if were scared it causes our body to go into the fight flight mind set which can help keep us alive. On the other hand, maybe the cleverer you are, the more you understand the consequences of an earthquake for example, causing us to feel fear. Phobias though I haven’t a clue! Its weird to think that someone can be brave enough to sky dive, fight in a war or run into a burning building, but yet can be scared of something as little as a spider!

  • Photo: Josh

    Josh commented on :

    That’s a good point, 07stoombs. The adrenaline rush we get when we’re scared makes us temporarily stronger, improves some parts of your eyesight, makes you more resistant to pain and better prepared for injury. So fear definitely serves a purpose to make us react better. But I agree, it’s strange how that translates to situations where we don’t have a realistic chance of being hurt.