Chapter 11. The Fear Factor

Infographic

Infographic Activity

by David Myers and Nathan DeWall

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Thinking Critically About: The Fear Factor

Several factors explain why we sometimes fear the wrong things. (This infographic is from Psychology in Everyday Life, 5th Edition, Chapter 8.)

An infographic, titled the fear factor shows the factors that exaggerate the fear of unlikely events. You can read full description from the link below

Figure 11.1:

The Fear Factor imageEnlarge figure Image description

Quiz

Question 11.1

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We tend to have exaggerated fears of publicized threats that kill people dramatically (terrorism, plane crashes, shark attacks), and to fear too little the risks that are harder to visualize but take many more lives, one by one (ongoing gun violence, childhood illnesses worldwide, heart disease).

Question 11.2

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We tend to fear things that were risks for our distant ancestors (thus, we may fear snakes more than cigarettes). And we tend to fear what we can’t control, what’s immediate, and what’s vividly available in memory (a shark attack or a terrorism attack, rather than guns in the home or heart disease).