The Psychology of Fear (for dummies) Pt. 2

A Quick Recap

In one of my earlier articles, we discussed how there are various different causes of fear that have altering degrees of significance to each persons psyche, depending on how relevant it is to their innate "triggers". We discussed how fear can be intentionally taught to a person by altering their responses to certain situations, and things, as well as how certain sounds can induce fear in specific individuals, but not others. Furthermore, we discovered that the state of solitude can induce a fear-response in certain individuals, which is tied to our human evolution. However, none of those discoveries are found to induce fear for every single person across the globe. So the question still remains; What is the one thing that every living human fears, regardless of our cognitive differences?

Evolution and The Darkness

While being alone may not be the scariest thing for everyone, the discussion turns to another common fear - the fear of the dark. The fear of darkness, often known as nyctophobia, can evoke primal fears and intensify feelings of vulnerability when our ability to see is taken away. The fear of the dark, is a common experience for both children and adults. The fear is rooted in sensory deprivation, which makes individuals feel out of control and vulnerable. Evolutionary factors play a role, as predators historically posed a greater threat at night. The fear of darkness typically presents itself around the age of two, when cognitive and neural developments allow for the creation of memories and associations with potential dangers in the dark.

Interestingly, newborns and blind individuals do not have this fear of the dark, highlighting that the fear is associated to what we learn about certain situations. The fear of darkness is not universal and varies based on individual experiences and perceptions. Moving beyond the fear of darkness, let's explore the impact of sound on fear. Sound has a direct neural pathway to the amygdala, triggering immediate and primal responses. Eerie sounds, particularly those associated with horror movies, can hijack the fear system and induce a strong startle response. Overall, the discussion highlights how sensory experiences, such as darkness and sound, can be manipulated to evoke fear, based on learned associations and evolutionary responses.

This leads us to explore the psychological concept known as the "Law of Contagion," which refers to our tendency to view objects with the qualities of the people they are associated with. An example involves paintings; one depicting a flirty little clown, an abstract piece seemingly innocent, until it's revealed that it was created by John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer who sexually violated and murdered 33 teenage boys, and another by Adolf Hitler - well, that needs no context. Nonetheless, this suggests that the context and the story behind an object can significantly impact our perception of it, triggering emotional responses and fear.

Oh I don't Like THAT! - It's Too Weird

Furthermore, the discussion reveals that anything different or unfamiliar can be perceived as scary, and it gives the idea that distorted human forms, especially those that look, act, or move in unnatural ways, can evoke fear. This taps into the concept of the abnormal, where familiar elements presented in an unfamiliar or distorted manner can trigger discomfort and fear.

The video discusses the fear of distorted human forms and attributes it to our brain's nature as a prediction processor. The brain tries to predict what will happen next, and when something doesn't match our established templates or categories, it activates the amygdala, leading to cognitive and emotional arousal. The genetic predisposition to be averse to things outside the ordinary contributes to our fear of distorted forms.

A study conducted by researchers at Princeton and Florida Atlantic University, where infants were shown normal faces and creepy, distorted faces. Babies around eight months old did not avoid looking at the scary faces, suggesting that at that age, they haven't yet established a sense of what is normal or creepy. The fear of distorted natural forms goes beyond faces to include bodies, such as humans with other animal parts, and creatures moving unnaturally. This also introduces the concept of "Social Fear Transmission", highlighting how people can learn fear by observing other people's experiences.

This concept breaks it down into innate aversions and learned fears. Innate aversions are hardwired into our DNA through evolution and include eight unique aspects that elicit panic; pain, isolation, the unknown or abnormal, disease, sudden movement, suffocation, falling, and incapacitation. Think of these innate aversions as an inner "web of fear," connecting various fears to the possibility of death.

That's Jam-packed

Learned fears, on the other hand, can be acquired throughout life, and there seems to be no limit to the number we can accumulate. The amygdala plays a crucial role in associating stimuli with fear responses. This suggests that when learned fears are combined, they can be scarier than the sum of their parts, a phenomenon exploited by horror filmmakers using "Category Jamming".

Category Jamming involves combining different fears to create a more potent emotional response. The example given is placing snakes on a plane, combining the fear of snakes, fear of flying, and the unsettling feeling of crossing over domains in the air. Two fears that really have no business being ,and would not regularly be found, in conjunction. However, this questions whether this extreme combination is truly the scariest thing or if it's just a cop-out.

Probing The Amygdala

The next scenario discusses 'Patient "SM"', an individual with an extremely rare genetic disorder that resulted in the destruction of her amygdala at the age of ten. As we have already brought light to the fact that the amygdala is a crucial part of the brain associated with processing emotions, including fear. Patient SM's unique condition has led scientists to study her to understand the role of the amygdala in fear responses. Patient SM was put through a trial of tests to inspect and monitor her reactions. When held at knife-point by the throat and instructed to hand over all her money, her response was one that was completely rational, indicating no signs of fear response in her as she simply stated, "Well, if you cut me, I'll chase you down and kill you".

Contrary to what was believed before this, about the absence of an amygdala inhibiting the ability to feel fear, an experiment with Patient SM revealed that inhaling concentrated carbon dioxide (CO2) induced complete panic in her. Elevated levels of CO2 in the blood triggered a fear response, this collapsed the notion that the amygdala is solely responsible for fear reactions. Surely, there must be other factors. Further experiments involved two more patients in Germany with non-functioning amygdalae, and they also showed panic only in response to CO2 inhalation. The surprising finding was that a control group with intact amygdalae showed a lower fear reaction than Patient SM. This led researchers to reconsider the amygdala's role in fear, suggesting that maybe it just plays a role in hindering fear responses to internal threats rather.

An interesting finding, for the control group, is that the amygdalae signaled to other parts of the brain that the elevated CO2 levels weren't indicative of an external threat, leading to a lower fear response. This now challenges the traditional understanding of the amygdala's function and raises questions about whether or not it really can distinguish between internal and external threats.

Well...here's what we DO know

These factors all point to the complexity of fear responses and the need for a more nuanced understanding of the brain's mechanisms. So here is what we do know; if there is the scariest thing needed to elicit fear, even in those without an amygdala, it might involve triggering the body's internal fear response to elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

Read more articles like this on this page