Chapter 48
Fear
People Affected: everyone for sensory triggers
People Affected: everyone older than 24 months for conceptual trigger
Type of Emotion: reflex
Sensory Triggers: historic threats and warning expressions
Conceptual Trigger: “ I expect my happiness to change ”
Physical Effect: adrenalin, aldosterone, endorphins released
Physical Effect: palms and feet sweat
Physical Effect: piloerection, lip curl
Physical Effect: bladder and bowel evacuation
Physical Effect: fainting
Mental Effect: suppressive
Key Feature: the greater the threat, the more physical effects are triggered
Key Feature: the greater the threat, the stronger the suppressive effect
Involuntary Expressions: horror, screaming
Synonyms: terror, anxiety, worry
People Affected: everyone older than 24 months for conceptual trigger
Type of Emotion: reflex
Sensory Triggers: historic threats and warning expressions
Conceptual Trigger: “ I expect my happiness to change ”
Physical Effect: adrenalin, aldosterone, endorphins released
Physical Effect: palms and feet sweat
Physical Effect: piloerection, lip curl
Physical Effect: bladder and bowel evacuation
Physical Effect: fainting
Mental Effect: suppressive
Key Feature: the greater the threat, the more physical effects are triggered
Key Feature: the greater the threat, the stronger the suppressive effect
Involuntary Expressions: horror, screaming
Synonyms: terror, anxiety, worry
Purpose
Fear helps you avoid threats.
Sensory Triggers
Sensory fear is triggered by the sight of historic threats, such as snakes or heights.
Sensory fear is also triggered by involuntary warning expressions. You feel fear when you see the expression of horror or hear a blood-curdling scream.
Sensory fear can be triggered from birth onwards.
You can become desensitized to fear’s sensory triggers. If you are continually exposed to a threat without being harmed, it stops triggering fear. Most adults do not feel fear when they see a snake.
Desensitizing helps you. If you survive being continually exposed to a threat, it must not be harmful. If reaching a good hunting ground requires climbing a cliff, being continually frightened by the height of the cliff will not help you.
Conceptual Trigger
Fear helps you avoid threats.
Sensory Triggers
Sensory fear is triggered by the sight of historic threats, such as snakes or heights.
Sensory fear is also triggered by involuntary warning expressions. You feel fear when you see the expression of horror or hear a blood-curdling scream.
Sensory fear can be triggered from birth onwards.
You can become desensitized to fear’s sensory triggers. If you are continually exposed to a threat without being harmed, it stops triggering fear. Most adults do not feel fear when they see a snake.
Desensitizing helps you. If you survive being continually exposed to a threat, it must not be harmful. If reaching a good hunting ground requires climbing a cliff, being continually frightened by the height of the cliff will not help you.
Conceptual Trigger
While sensory fear is triggered by a historic threat or warning expression, conceptual fear is triggered when you expect your happiness to change. Bungee jumping triggers both. Sensory fear is triggered by the sight of the distant ground below. Conceptual fear is triggered by the thought of the bungee cord breaking.
Conceptual fear is triggered when you expect any change in your happiness, not just when you expect to feel pain. Your palms sweat before courting a mate or making a speech. Your heart rate increases if you expect to be hired or fired.
Triggering fear when you expect to feel pain is logical. Increased heart rate and sweaty palms help you fight or flee a threat.
Triggering fear when you expect to feel a conceptual coercion may also be logical. The conceptual coercions are jealousy, revenge and compassion. If a woman has committed infidelity, increased heart rate would make a man’s anger more credible. If somebody has harmed you by breaking the rules, increased heart rate would make it easier to retaliate. If you see somebody pinned under a machine, increased heart rate would help you save that unfortunate person.
Although it occurs, triggering fear when you expect other emotions is not logical. Fear does not help if you feel love, infatuation, pride or humiliation. Sweaty palms do not help you court the opposite gender or make a speech. Increased heart rate does not help you get hired or avoid being fired.
Conceptual fear cannot be triggered until a child is 24 months old. Children begin to imagine monsters at this age. The onset of fear is the fourth of four reasons for the terrible-two’s. The other reasons are: the onset of conceptions, the end of maternal love and the end of cute.
Physical Effects
Conceptual fear is triggered when you expect any change in your happiness, not just when you expect to feel pain. Your palms sweat before courting a mate or making a speech. Your heart rate increases if you expect to be hired or fired.
Triggering fear when you expect to feel pain is logical. Increased heart rate and sweaty palms help you fight or flee a threat.
Triggering fear when you expect to feel a conceptual coercion may also be logical. The conceptual coercions are jealousy, revenge and compassion. If a woman has committed infidelity, increased heart rate would make a man’s anger more credible. If somebody has harmed you by breaking the rules, increased heart rate would make it easier to retaliate. If you see somebody pinned under a machine, increased heart rate would help you save that unfortunate person.
Although it occurs, triggering fear when you expect other emotions is not logical. Fear does not help if you feel love, infatuation, pride or humiliation. Sweaty palms do not help you court the opposite gender or make a speech. Increased heart rate does not help you get hired or avoid being fired.
Conceptual fear cannot be triggered until a child is 24 months old. Children begin to imagine monsters at this age. The onset of fear is the fourth of four reasons for the terrible-two’s. The other reasons are: the onset of conceptions, the end of maternal love and the end of cute.
Physical Effects
The greater the threat, the more physical effects are triggered. Even weak fear triggers adrenalin release. Only strong fear triggers fainting.
Adrenalin increases your heart rate, which helps you fight or flee an attacker. Aldosterone regulates blood pressure when your heart rate increases. Endorphins suppress pain if you are injured.
Palms and feet sweat to give you better grip. You use the same principal when you lick your finger to turn a page. Fingerprints on your hands and feet also give you better grip.
Piloerection and lip curl make you appear more threatening. Erect body hair makes you appear larger, like a frightened cat. Lip curl shows your teeth. Piloerection and lip curl have almost atrophied since we lost the need for thermal hair and canine teeth.
Bladder and bowel evacuation help fight or flight by making you lighter.
Fainting can evade predation by making you appear lifeless, like opossums do. Fainting is more common in women because it is a better strategy for them. Their smaller size makes them less likely to successfully fight or flee a predator.
Vomiting is not triggered by fear. Vomiting would hinder fight and flight by obstructing vision and breathing. Vomiting is only triggered by survival punishments, like disgust.
Mental Effect
Adrenalin increases your heart rate, which helps you fight or flee an attacker. Aldosterone regulates blood pressure when your heart rate increases. Endorphins suppress pain if you are injured.
Palms and feet sweat to give you better grip. You use the same principal when you lick your finger to turn a page. Fingerprints on your hands and feet also give you better grip.
Piloerection and lip curl make you appear more threatening. Erect body hair makes you appear larger, like a frightened cat. Lip curl shows your teeth. Piloerection and lip curl have almost atrophied since we lost the need for thermal hair and canine teeth.
Bladder and bowel evacuation help fight or flight by making you lighter.
Fainting can evade predation by making you appear lifeless, like opossums do. Fainting is more common in women because it is a better strategy for them. Their smaller size makes them less likely to successfully fight or flee a predator.
Vomiting is not triggered by fear. Vomiting would hinder fight and flight by obstructing vision and breathing. Vomiting is only triggered by survival punishments, like disgust.
Mental Effect
Fear triggers a suppressive mental effect. When frightened, you do not feel positive effects like pleasing taste or sexual pleasure. You also do not feel negative effects like humiliation or loneliness. Suppression helps you concentrate on avoiding a threat by eliminating distractions.
The greater the threat, the stronger the suppressive effect.
Weak fear only suppresses weak emotions. A horror film can suppress weak boredom, but not moderate hunger.
Strong fear suppresses all emotions. Even strong revenge is suppressed when someone points a loaded gun at you.
People use fear’s suppressive mental effect to suppress negative emotions. People enjoy driving fast, taking amusement rides and parachuting because it triggers fear. Triggering fear suppresses their loneliness or boredom.
The placebo effect is the absence of fear’s suppressive mental effect. People who do not expect pain, do not feel fear. Consequently, their emotions are not suppressed. They feel better because they can feel positive emotions like affection or excitement.
Fear also triggers better memory storage. You always remember the details of frightening events, like the music that was playing when you were in a car accident. Better memories help you spot and avoid the same circumstances in the future.
Fear does not automatically make you fight or behave aggressively. Your survival is maximized by letting you decide whether fight or flight is better. Automatically committing you to fight would reduce your survival. It would eliminate the option of fleeing, which is usually the least harmful method of avoiding a threat.
Involuntary Expressions
Fear triggers the involuntary expression of horror. While fear evolved to help you avoid a threat, the involuntary expression of horror on your face evolved to help others avoid a threat.
Extreme fear can also trigger involuntary screaming. Involuntary screaming causes serious harm to the screamer by ensuring that attackers know where the screamer is. Because it causes such serious harm to a screamer, it is only triggered by extreme fear. If you feel extreme fear, you are probably going to die. Giving away your location does not cause you additional harm, but it does help save others.
Lie Detectors
Lie detectors detect fear, which is different than detecting lies. Lie detectors detect fear’s physical effects: increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and sweaty palms. Fear is triggered if you think you might be caught lying. Fear is also triggered if you think you might be wrongly convicted or embarrassed.
The greater the threat, the stronger the suppressive effect.
Weak fear only suppresses weak emotions. A horror film can suppress weak boredom, but not moderate hunger.
Strong fear suppresses all emotions. Even strong revenge is suppressed when someone points a loaded gun at you.
People use fear’s suppressive mental effect to suppress negative emotions. People enjoy driving fast, taking amusement rides and parachuting because it triggers fear. Triggering fear suppresses their loneliness or boredom.
The placebo effect is the absence of fear’s suppressive mental effect. People who do not expect pain, do not feel fear. Consequently, their emotions are not suppressed. They feel better because they can feel positive emotions like affection or excitement.
Fear also triggers better memory storage. You always remember the details of frightening events, like the music that was playing when you were in a car accident. Better memories help you spot and avoid the same circumstances in the future.
Fear does not automatically make you fight or behave aggressively. Your survival is maximized by letting you decide whether fight or flight is better. Automatically committing you to fight would reduce your survival. It would eliminate the option of fleeing, which is usually the least harmful method of avoiding a threat.
Involuntary Expressions
Fear triggers the involuntary expression of horror. While fear evolved to help you avoid a threat, the involuntary expression of horror on your face evolved to help others avoid a threat.
Extreme fear can also trigger involuntary screaming. Involuntary screaming causes serious harm to the screamer by ensuring that attackers know where the screamer is. Because it causes such serious harm to a screamer, it is only triggered by extreme fear. If you feel extreme fear, you are probably going to die. Giving away your location does not cause you additional harm, but it does help save others.
Lie Detectors
Lie detectors detect fear, which is different than detecting lies. Lie detectors detect fear’s physical effects: increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and sweaty palms. Fear is triggered if you think you might be caught lying. Fear is also triggered if you think you might be wrongly convicted or embarrassed.
Happiness Dissected is a more practical version of The Origin of Emotions.