What is Fear? There are many scientific studies attempting to pinpoint this elusive term. Strangely, answering the question “what’s it good for” helps define it. It forces us to think about why nature created fear. Merriam-Webster™ defines fear as an unpleasant, often powerful, emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.
This website does not use that definition. Instead, here, fear includes all psychological reactions to a perceived danger. Those dangers may not be real. More often than not, they do not exist. When the brain perceives something as true, it does not matter if it’s false. It is the same neuroelectrical signal. Therefore, inside your brain, truth is only a perceived condition.
The primary causes of fear include:
- prior trauma,
- biology, [genetics, primitive brain, etc.],
- environmental factors,
- learned fears,
- manipulation, [the elephant in the room.],
- overprotective parenting, and
- social factors.
The biology of fear is far too complex to discuss on this website. However, the four normal responses to a perceived danger are attack, run, analyze, and hide. This seems incredibly consistent with the four personality types. Ralph Adolphs published an in-depth study in The Biology of Fear (2013) Current Biology 23, R79-R93.
The links below open a page describing the most commonly encountered fears. Although there are only a few listed, they include the top ten listed in the Gallup™ Poll.