When you are afraid, you start going into fight or flight mode. Your body starts prioritising what is needed for immediate survival - screw routine body functions, if you don't make it past the next few moments there won't be a routine to return to. You stop digesting food. Cell repair slows or stops. You stop producing saliva, which is why your mouth goes dry when you're nervous just before making a speech or going into a difficult conversation. Your heart rate and breathing increase to ensure better blood flow. A cocktail of hormones like epinephrine and oxytocin are cued up and produced, which amplifies your body's ability to act (and remarkably, in the case of oxytocin, reminds you to seek help).
Don't be mistaken about what happens when you feel fear. Your body is readying itself to help you face what you fear in the way it knows how.
What causes us to feel fear?
1) Fear occurs to us unconsciously. Do you pause to think, hey, very angry looking snake! Maybe I should be scared. Of course not, it would be too late! Fear becomes much clearer when we examine what happens inside your brain. When you are afraid, the fear/anger/aggression/anxiety centre of your brain - the amygdalas (get used to this name, it's gonna keep popping up) lights up. And we've covered all the changes that happen in your body: your blood pressure, your hormones, your heart-rate. But remember how amygdala is like a train interchange with direct routes to different parts of your brain? There is a direct neural link between our amygdala and your pre-frontal cortex, the rational thinking part of your brain. And if we look closely enough or we think things through, sometimes we realise, argh! it's not an angry snake, it's just a prank toy that your annoying friend had thrown at you. Or if you've handled angry snakes enough times, your amygdala does not light as much. Your blood pressure and your heart rate do not increase as much, you realise what you need to do is to stay calm and slowly back away.
Finally, notice how fear, anger, aggression, and anxiety are processed by the same part of the brain, the amygdala. This is no coincidence. These 4 emotions are closely tied to one another; aggression maybe triggered because one is nervous, angry, or fearful. Being fearful may cause one to react angrily, as a self-defense mechanism. Fear, like all our emotions, happens to us. Mostly, we can't control how it originates. But we can control how it develops by understanding what exactly is causing fear and by choosing the response that dispels it
2) We fear what we are unconfident or uncertain about. Think back on your ancestors doing something they weren't confident or certain off - hunting a massive animal without a weapon, or eating a berry they've never seen before. Doing so would mean a very high chance of seriously harming themselves. Today, after many cycles of evolution, we have been wired based on these experiences.
Think about it. Are you ever fearful of something you've done before, and are good? Brushing your teeth, putting on your clothes, indulging in your favourite hobby (whatever it is)? Of course not. You know you can perform these functions easily. You are confident.
But many of us would have felt fearful and anxious the first time we ventured into something new: using a pair of chopsticks, riding a bicycle, swimming, going on a first date. We were uncertain about these functions, and we were not confident about performing them. However, once we have demonstrated to ourselves that we are able to perform these tasks, we are no longer afraid. The same applies to more challenging tasks. Some of us struggle with: public speaking, starting a business, having a very difficult conversation with the CEO... You are uncertain and unconfident if you can succeed. But once you have proven to yourself you are able to do it, even for the more challenging tasks, you are no longer afraid. People might start off feeling scared about public speaking, but after speech 3797, you're pro The catch, of course, is that sometimes, we are too scared to start.
Even if we were certain of something OR confident about something, many of us will still feel some amount of fear. We might be theoretically certain how we should use a pair of chopsticks, but if we have never succeeded in using them properly, we remain unconfident and will still feel nervous if we had to use them, especially when others are observing. You might also be confident about
3) we fear what is painful. Boxer. climbing 100 flights of stairs or doing 100 burpees. But pain is not just physical but mental. Failure is painful. Being judged is painful.
This is why you procrastinate. You either fear what you have to do bevause you don't know how to do it (you don't fear brushing your teeth for example), or you fear doing something becaue you know it will be effortful
4) we fear what we cannot control
Learn more about your amygdala, the amygdala hijack, the thalamus, the pre-frontal cortex, and how your brain works here.
​
Summary:
- Fear and anxiety (and anger + aggression) are always
Why are people panic buying again?
IIn Singapore where I am living, new restrictions have been imposed due to a rise in Covid-19 cases. These include a ban on dining out and a reduction in the size of social gatherings. After the announcements, social media was flooded with images of people queueing and stocking supplies from supermarkets.
This was reminiscent of scenes when Covid-19 first broke out. Then, people were, ostensibly, worried about supplies, and rushed to stock up with an impending lock-down. But surely this doesn’t make any sense now. From previous experience, people must know that supplies are steady in Singapore. While some items might take a day or 2 longer to re-stock, Singaporeans are generally able to get what they need and want. Moreover, supermarkets and eateries will remain open.
|||| How can this be happening again?
-
Why are people queuing up to stockpile for Covid when there is no need to? Are they not afraid of getting infected as they queue?
-
And what explains individual difference? Why are some people more "sensible" than others?
It would be easy to simply pin the answer down to the ugly and irrational side of humanity - that these folks mindlessly and irresponsibly queued and stocked up when there was no need to. But I don't think the answer is quite so simple.
And there is real value in examining why people think and act the way they do because most of our problems today are people problems. Covid-19 is as much a technical challenge as a people one. Alongside development or vaccines and treatment, is the equally difficult task of persuading people to stay calm and safe (for their own sake!)
The answer that drives behaviour in this instance is fear. But it's important to recognise that there are different types of fear, and which fear activates might not be so intuitive.
Ostensibly, the most obvious fear should be health and safety. The point of Covid restrictions is to keep everyone safe as cases rise. Surely, everyone is fearful of this, right?
I don't think so.
​
Here we turn to Joseph LeDoux from New York University, who helped us to really understand how we learn and re-evaluate our fears.
​
What LeDoux tested and discovered, is that there are 2 major components to your amygdala - the part of the brain that processes fear, anger, anxiety, and aggression. There is a central amygdala - the triggering of which leads to the experience of the fear response that we are very familiar with. Additionally, there is a basolateral amygdala - this is the region that actively learns and continually confirms what is fearful and what isn’t.
Suppose you expose a rat to a shock. This causes the fear response to activate - the amygdala lights up, stress hormones are released, heart rate goes up. The rat is afraid. Now suppose we couple the shock with a harmless stimulus, say a short beeping sound. Repeated enough times, fear conditioning happens - the rat becomes fearful just from the sound. Just hearing that beep triggers the fear response. Very straightforward thus far.
This conditioning leads to actual changes in our brains. As the rats become conditioned to the beep, the neurons in the basolateral amygdala that registers this beep become more active. The links (the scientific term is synapses) between these neurons and those in the central amygdala become more excitable. In other words, your brain learns that the beep is worth being scared of, and it wires itself to reflect this learning.
In the context of Covid, you can see similarities. The beep here is your news outlets and press conferences and social media. The actual shock is getting Covid itself. Over time, we become conditioned to fear listening to the news and gossip, even though by themselves they are actually harmless.
Now, what happens if the conditions change? The beep still occurs, but now, after the beep, there is no more shock. Gradually, the rat learns this and is no longer afraid of the beep. But how does this happen? Recall earlier that neurons in the basolateral amygdala become attuned to the beep once conditioning has occurred. Once these neurons have been wired, it is difficult to unwire. We don't forget our fears.
​
But now, a new set of neurons in the basolateral amygdala does the opposite - they register, with the support of your prefrontal cortex, that this beep isn’t scary. Nothing happens when the beep comes on. These new neurons inhibit the activation of the earlier set of neurons. Over time, the new neurons become more excitable than the earlier set, completely preventing them from activating your central amygdala and the fear response. We don’t passively forget that something is scary. We actively learn that it isn’t scary anymore.
Again, back to Covid - the news is constantly reporting about rise in Covid cases, and the need to stay safe and be responsible. But for some Singaporeans, they don’t feel like they are in any danger. Covid, by and large, is under control. Even the numbers of new cases feel like a minuscule number, a tiny percentage of total population.
​
To these Singaporeans, they have actively learnt that the beep isn’t very scary - the constant churn of news or the minister at the press conference telling them to be careful doesn’t feel like it is worth worrying about. They have actively learnt (rightly or wrongly) that Covid is not something they should fear, because probabilistically, nothing is going to happen to them (while this might be morally irresponsible, statistically, this is not untrue - only a very small minority of Singaporeans will get Covid).
The obvious fear of getting Covid might not really trigger for them.
Instead, other fears do.
In another post: https://www.facebook.com/aknowbrainer/posts/165076378854699
we discussed how humans dread uncertainty. Uncertainty makes us uncomfortable and causes us actual and tangible pain, which can be verified through brain scans.
We also explored the experiment by Gregory Berns et al from Emory University - who found that some people chose to receive a larger electric shock now (certainty), as compared to waiting for a much smaller shock at an uncertain later. They were willing to bear more pain to avoid uncertainty because uncertainty itself is painful.
Covid is an uncertain period. Whether they are fearful of actually getting Covid or not, people have no idea what will happen next. For some, this is particularly uncomfortable and painful.
But what has this got to do with queuing and stocking up when it is not necessary?
Well, the stocking up allows these Singaporeans to create their own certainty. When folks queue up to stock up, they create a certainty that no matter what happens, they are well prepared.
There is a 3rd fear that Singaporeans will be familiar with, the fear of losing out.
People might know there is no need to stock up. But in a competitive environment like Singapore, where people are always comparing, it makes them uncomfortable to not do something when others are doing it. And this compels people into action. In fact, there is a colloquial term that describes this behaviour, which all Singaporeans are familiar with: "Kiasuism".
So the active learning (again there is a subjective element to whether you think this is accurate or not) that Covid is not so scary, and the triggering of other types of fears relating to uncertainty and losing out can cause people to queue and stock up even when it is not necessary. In other words, people might queue knowing full well there is no need to queue. But, it makes them feel better, more secure, and less fearful. Thought this way, this behaviour is not completely ridiculous; we all do different things to soothe ourselves - some of these are dumber than others, but nonetheless from just the point of view of soothing our worries, it works.
But what causes individual difference? Why do some people queue and some people don’t?
It boils down to 2 broad actions that we are constantly taking throughout our lives.
The first is what we call exteroception - making sense of the external environment around us. You can immediately think of how this affects behaviour. Imagine if your social circle is very calm, and all of them repeat the same message - nothing to worry about, these people queueing are crazy. Compare this to say a chat group where someone goes: I’m going to the supermarket, just in case. A second person adds: I’m free this afternoon, might as well go and stock up. And a third person goes: yeq, good idea, it’s better to be safe.
Another influence: saliency. Suppose you received the news of Covid restrictions when you are about to go to the supermarket. And when you were there, suddenly you see all these people grabbing many items, stocking up. Do you think you will be more inclined to do the same?
The second action we do is interoception - making sense of our internal state and thoughts. Again, fairly obvious. If you are very tired, you are less likely to queue. If you are used to buying things online, you are less likely to queue. If you have previously made fun of people queuing, cognitive dissonance makes you less likely to queue. On the other hand, let’s say you are constantly stressing about your family. Say you have some kids and you know they are very busy at work. And you're worried if they have enough supplies, or if they might be caught unprepared. So you might decide, I’m going to queue for them.
Interoception and Exteroception are moderated by individual differences - our personalities, our past experiences, our genes and how and which genes are expressed, the changes in our brains especially during adolescence and in the past 6 months, and so on.
​
We will explore a little bit more on interoception and exteroception in future chapters, but I hope this piece provides some insight into how we learn and relearn our fears in the context of Covid-19.