Is there something you are afraid of? Fear is a psychological trait that is found in everyone. People develop fear throughout their lives, but most of our fears are developed during childhood when the mind is more vulnerable. There are many fears in the general public, the most common ones being: height, public speaking, small spaces, the dark, snakes, spiders, needles and dentists.
Spider by cheetah100 via Flickr Creative Commons
Fear comes in different forms and it can be on a conscious and unconscious level. One might find themselves fearing harmless objects due to their connection to the object or thing they actually fear. For example, one who is afraid of heights may find themselves developing a fear of skyscrapers, since it subconsciously reminds them of high places.
We all know what we fear, but why do we fear and how does fear develop? The most obvious answer may be that when we experience something unpleasant, it can trigger us into fearing the object or thing that traumatized us. For instance, if a child was bitten by a dog when they were young, they may start fearing dogs. From that moment on, whenever they come across dogs, their first instinct is to get away from the dogs as far as they can. In contrast to our beliefs, studies show that there is another cause of fear.
Shocked baby by mjtmail (tiggy) via Flickr Creative Commons
One study based their experiment on monkeys and snakes. Initially monkeys and snakes were placed in a room and the response of the monkeys was monitored. From the observations, it turns our monkeys do not fear snakes. However, when the monkeys were isolated from one another and a shocking noise was accompanied each time a snake was introduced, the monkeys started becoming afraid of the snakes. Furthermore, when the response of a frightened monkey was shown to another monkey, the second monkey also developed a fear for snakes. From this experiment, it can be concluded that people can develop fear without having to personally experience a traumatic event to learn to fear something.
Take a look at a video of a fearless seven year old kid skydiving:
From YouTube user: woods852
As it turns out, we learn our fears and we can overcome them by stepping out of our comfort zones and continuously exposing ourselves to what we are most afraid of. So what will you do next?
For further readings on another study based on learning fear see here.
-Alice Lin
