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Fear Itself: The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America
An antidote to the culture of fear that dominates modern life
From moral panics about immigration and gun control to anxiety about terrorism and natural disasters, Americans live in a culture of fear. While fear is typically discussed in emotional or poetic terms--as the opposite of courage, or as an obstacle to be overcome--it nevertheless has very real consequences in everyday life. Persistent fear negatively effects individuals' decision-making abilities and causes anxiety, depression, and poor physical health. Further, fear harms communities and society by corroding social trust and civic engagement. Yet politicians often effectively leverage fears to garner votes and companies routinely market unnecessary products that promise protection from imagined or exaggerated harms.
Drawing on five years of data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears--which canvasses a random, national sample of adults about a broad range of fears--Fear Itself offers new insights into what people are afraid of and how fear affects their lives. The authors also draw on participant observation with Doomsday preppers and conspiracy theorists to provide fascinating narratives about subcultures of fear.
Fear Itself is a novel, wide-ranging study of the social consequences of fear, ultimately suggesting that there is good reason to be afraid of fear itself.
From moral panics about immigration and gun control to anxiety about terrorism and natural disasters, Americans live in a culture of fear. While fear is typically discussed in emotional or poetic terms--as the opposite of courage, or as an obstacle to be overcome--it nevertheless has very real consequences in everyday life. Persistent fear negatively effects individuals' decision-making abilities and causes anxiety, depression, and poor physical health. Further, fear harms communities and society by corroding social trust and civic engagement. Yet politicians often effectively leverage fears to garner votes and companies routinely market unnecessary products that promise protection from imagined or exaggerated harms.
Drawing on five years of data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears--which canvasses a random, national sample of adults about a broad range of fears--Fear Itself offers new insights into what people are afraid of and how fear affects their lives. The authors also draw on participant observation with Doomsday preppers and conspiracy theorists to provide fascinating narratives about subcultures of fear.
Fear Itself is a novel, wide-ranging study of the social consequences of fear, ultimately suggesting that there is good reason to be afraid of fear itself.
200 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 2020
9 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 7, 2020
WARNING: SOME POLITICAL SHIT. IF YOU MIND THAT DON’T READ THIS BOOK OR MY REVIEW!
(Sigh)... This could’ve been a fascinating read... it really could have.
What’s it about?
This book analyzes the reasons and effects of fear, anxiety and even a few social things in America.
Pros:
This book is pretty interesting for all the things it goes over. Not only do we hear about what people fear but also how various things affect people and their emotions in sometimes surprising ways (mostly due to the news according to this book).
The data talked about is rather intriguing.
Cons:
The writing is rather dry. To be fair, that is pretty common for nonfiction and these science and psychology type books aren’t even my typical pick for nonfiction (I’m more of a history guy myself). That being said, I still didn’t care for or connect very much with the writing TBH.
There’s some parts with some extreme political bias. So I noticed quite a few bits acting like it’s paranoid to find politicians and/or governments untrustworthy (history would disagree with this book). Ironically this book does include some anti-gun fear mongering. Also, even though I’m not a fan of the guy, what was with the random “Trump bad” shit sprinkled throughout? I mean, holy fuck, they even twisted things to make it against Trump (example: saying it’s concerning that a president would believe conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, the evidence being that he did an interview on InfoWars... umm... Trump’s been interviewed on CNN too, does this author think Trump’s a fan of CNN?)
This book has some stuff about memes and gets them wrong... Okay, everyone reading this can get a special gen z report: this book talks about internet shit without understanding some related things. Example: it claims “Chad” and “normie” are incel codes but I’ve seen those phrases in several memes that don’t have shit to do with that. It also promotes that stupid belief that 4Chan is some sorta place where bigots incite and plan violence (which is bullshit, it’s basically just an anonymous forum. Seriously, I’ve been on 4Chan, most of what I saw are some edgy memes, chicken tenders, comic book discussion and anime porn. Sure, you can probably find some bad shit there but that can most likely be said about any website with user-made content). It’s just kinda stupid to put this in a book when you could literally take 2 minutes to go online and look at what the hell you’re writing about.
This book talks a few times briefly about horror being bad because it can make people more scared and shit which... okay, so maybe it effects different people in different ways (which could probably be said for just about anything) but if anything I think constantly exposing myself to horror stuff desensitized me more than making me scared (in fact I actually think I used to be a pussy if I’m being completely blunt but now I’m rarely scared or offended by anything, quite possibly due to my choices in entertainment... whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable but I just think this book kinda pushes a common belief about the horror genre that I think is mostly inaccurate).
This book takes a brief shot at metal music saying that it causes fear, this is just inaccurate. For one, the violent lyrics, horror imagery and aggression are all just emotional and artistic expression like any other music. The other thing is that it’s stupid to single metal out as that “violent and scary” music genre which society seems to. I mean, did everyone just miss the multiple songs Johnny Cash did about God’s wrath coming to people? Or Eminem’s entire discography? Or pop stars like Billie Eilish using horror-themed imagery in their videos? There’s no problem with those things, I like all the artists I just referenced as well as a lot of metal music but for fuck’s sake, it’s in pretty much every musical genre and I thought people would have just quit with that stereotype.
(This is a gif from a pop song video, not a horror film)
Overall:
This could have been good and I even say that as someone who isn’t typically into this kinda book. Unfortunately with extreme political bias and inaccuracies about things, how am I meant to trust anything from this? Yeah I can’t recommend this book, trust this book or give this book more than 2-stars.
2/5
(Sigh)... This could’ve been a fascinating read... it really could have.
What’s it about?
This book analyzes the reasons and effects of fear, anxiety and even a few social things in America.
Pros:
This book is pretty interesting for all the things it goes over. Not only do we hear about what people fear but also how various things affect people and their emotions in sometimes surprising ways (mostly due to the news according to this book).
The data talked about is rather intriguing.
Cons:
The writing is rather dry. To be fair, that is pretty common for nonfiction and these science and psychology type books aren’t even my typical pick for nonfiction (I’m more of a history guy myself). That being said, I still didn’t care for or connect very much with the writing TBH.
There’s some parts with some extreme political bias. So I noticed quite a few bits acting like it’s paranoid to find politicians and/or governments untrustworthy (history would disagree with this book). Ironically this book does include some anti-gun fear mongering. Also, even though I’m not a fan of the guy, what was with the random “Trump bad” shit sprinkled throughout? I mean, holy fuck, they even twisted things to make it against Trump (example: saying it’s concerning that a president would believe conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, the evidence being that he did an interview on InfoWars... umm... Trump’s been interviewed on CNN too, does this author think Trump’s a fan of CNN?)
This book has some stuff about memes and gets them wrong... Okay, everyone reading this can get a special gen z report: this book talks about internet shit without understanding some related things. Example: it claims “Chad” and “normie” are incel codes but I’ve seen those phrases in several memes that don’t have shit to do with that. It also promotes that stupid belief that 4Chan is some sorta place where bigots incite and plan violence (which is bullshit, it’s basically just an anonymous forum. Seriously, I’ve been on 4Chan, most of what I saw are some edgy memes, chicken tenders, comic book discussion and anime porn. Sure, you can probably find some bad shit there but that can most likely be said about any website with user-made content). It’s just kinda stupid to put this in a book when you could literally take 2 minutes to go online and look at what the hell you’re writing about.
This book talks a few times briefly about horror being bad because it can make people more scared and shit which... okay, so maybe it effects different people in different ways (which could probably be said for just about anything) but if anything I think constantly exposing myself to horror stuff desensitized me more than making me scared (in fact I actually think I used to be a pussy if I’m being completely blunt but now I’m rarely scared or offended by anything, quite possibly due to my choices in entertainment... whether that’s a good thing or not is debatable but I just think this book kinda pushes a common belief about the horror genre that I think is mostly inaccurate).
This book takes a brief shot at metal music saying that it causes fear, this is just inaccurate. For one, the violent lyrics, horror imagery and aggression are all just emotional and artistic expression like any other music. The other thing is that it’s stupid to single metal out as that “violent and scary” music genre which society seems to. I mean, did everyone just miss the multiple songs Johnny Cash did about God’s wrath coming to people? Or Eminem’s entire discography? Or pop stars like Billie Eilish using horror-themed imagery in their videos? There’s no problem with those things, I like all the artists I just referenced as well as a lot of metal music but for fuck’s sake, it’s in pretty much every musical genre and I thought people would have just quit with that stereotype.
(This is a gif from a pop song video, not a horror film)
Overall:
This could have been good and I even say that as someone who isn’t typically into this kinda book. Unfortunately with extreme political bias and inaccuracies about things, how am I meant to trust anything from this? Yeah I can’t recommend this book, trust this book or give this book more than 2-stars.
2/5
April 23, 2020
The statistic gathering and analysis contained in this book were both incredibly thorough and well-compiled, with a lot of credence given to the way in which socioeconomic factors influence the culture of fear in the United States of America. This book provides an interesting base for a lot of assertions that have been floated since time immemorial regarding American biases, political leanings, and consumption of certain types of media (looking at you, Fox News).
My difficulty with this book is that it does seem somewhat restricted in its analysis (I'm unsure if this is because it was developed from a thesis or something of that nature), but I wish it had delved deeper into the sociological reasoning behind fear. The media output correlated with fear sentiment at a given time (i.e. during particular social events) would have been interesting to see as a graph as well- there was a more generalised variant of this but a bit more depth would have been wonderful. A full analysis of the scientific and social mechanisms behind fear also would have gone far.
I really feel like this is an important book in a lot of ways, and it reveals a uniquely American plague of suspicion surrounding absurd things. Fear of zombies is higher up on a fear list than many debilitating illnesses and the maltreatment of others- a terrifying fact if I've ever seen one. While this book isn't representative of the entire country, it focuses on a reasonably sized cohort, which is a scary thing to mull over in the future thinking back on this title.
My difficulty with this book is that it does seem somewhat restricted in its analysis (I'm unsure if this is because it was developed from a thesis or something of that nature), but I wish it had delved deeper into the sociological reasoning behind fear. The media output correlated with fear sentiment at a given time (i.e. during particular social events) would have been interesting to see as a graph as well- there was a more generalised variant of this but a bit more depth would have been wonderful. A full analysis of the scientific and social mechanisms behind fear also would have gone far.
I really feel like this is an important book in a lot of ways, and it reveals a uniquely American plague of suspicion surrounding absurd things. Fear of zombies is higher up on a fear list than many debilitating illnesses and the maltreatment of others- a terrifying fact if I've ever seen one. While this book isn't representative of the entire country, it focuses on a reasonably sized cohort, which is a scary thing to mull over in the future thinking back on this title.
October 13, 2024
A must-read. It's a study of correlations among fears, conspiracy theories, and various factors, and it has some counter-intuitive conclusions. Also great advice about media consumption.
September 7, 2022
Definitely some really interesting data collected and conclusions drawn. I felt that some of the topics seemed too detailed for the general theme of the book (like the huge focus on “preppers” that prepare for catastrophes and the end of the world). I thought the differences in fear depending on race, socioeconomic status, religion, etc. was interesting.
Overall, pretty good. Didn’t love the writing… kinda sounded like a kid just got a thesaurus and they wanted to use a lot of big words lol.
I would’ve loved to hear more about what to do with this data and how society could change for the better. The solutions proposed were only on the individual scale.
Overall, pretty good. Didn’t love the writing… kinda sounded like a kid just got a thesaurus and they wanted to use a lot of big words lol.
I would’ve loved to hear more about what to do with this data and how society could change for the better. The solutions proposed were only on the individual scale.
October 4, 2022
The authors are a group of scholars who used 5 years of data from the Chapman Fear assessment survey to examine what Americans fear and why. They found all sorts of interesting relationships, but the major finding is that Americans are very afraid, that both TV and social media feed these fears, and that the fears have psychological effects (anxiety increases), social consequences (xenophobia increases), and political consequences (Trump prospered, for example). They identified sets of fears that mostly affect liberals or conservatives, and a bigger set that affects individuals regardless of party ID or politics. A good deal of the book focuses on xenophobia, which is associated with R party ID and Fox news viewing. Fear of terrorism follows that same path (as does fear of gun control), generally, though MSNBC viewers fear white supremacists as terrorists and also fear mass shootings. Fear of crime is highest among white conservatives, which also means that it is not correlated with victimization of crime since minorities (especially African Americans) are more likely to be victims. Young people and women are also more afraid of crime. Fear of crime has increased even as crime rates have dropped dramatically. The media are partly to blame for focusing more-and-more attention on rare crimes and little attention on real crime and the reduction in crime.
The scholars also studied whether people believe various conspiracy theories, including one that they invented (South Dakota crash coverup). About one-third of the respondents believed even the invented conspiracy and only 25% of Americans rejected all of the conspiracies they asked about. People who believe conspiracies are more fearful. Belief in UFOs was an especially strong marker of belief in a range of conspiracies.
The scholars also studied whether people believe various conspiracy theories, including one that they invented (South Dakota crash coverup). About one-third of the respondents believed even the invented conspiracy and only 25% of Americans rejected all of the conspiracies they asked about. People who believe conspiracies are more fearful. Belief in UFOs was an especially strong marker of belief in a range of conspiracies.
April 28, 2024
i found this book to be pretty methodologically unsound, in all honesty. bader et al. referenced manipulations of the data they collected a number of times--standard deviations from a given mean, etc.--without ever providing the raw data on its own. (to be fair to them, they did say that the raw data of the survey was available for free online, and i was able to find it myself after doing some digging, but they could have included it in appendices!) also, i think it's strange that they didn't make any mention of the concrete demographics of the people who took the survey. like, how many of the survey respondents were Black? how many were women? how many were queer? etc. that information would have been useful in analyzing, say, table 1.1.
December 6, 2020
Really interesting read, need to buy lol
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews