Overcoming Fear Culture and Fear Itself

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“Accept that you’re human,” counsels Gardner. Accept that you’re susceptible to misjudgments and miscalculations, and that your instincts might, at times, lead you astray. Learn some of the science, and develop a habit of thinking twice about gut reactions. And then, extend that compassion for human nature to others.

People need not abandon fear altogether. As Slovic points out, our ability to judge risk is sophisticated, and instinctual decisions often serve us well. But when something doesn’t quite seem to sync up, gut to head, then it’s time to pause and at least question what’s causing the discrepancy.

Once people start thinking this way, it’s impossible to stop: Every television program, every advertisement, every stump speech that hangs its hat on scare tactics will be thrown into acute relief. We can give up allowing fears to define us, and focus instead on which ones are worth tackling together. When we do that, we don’t just free politicians from fear-inducing rhetoric or stymie fearmongering marketers; we also give ourselves some much-needed relief. The cause for alarm that Abramsky suggests—that we can see how far we’ve come—will instead give us hope for how far we still might go.

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