6 Learnings About Fear From The Fear Factor by Abigail Marsh

Most people look at fear as a negative emotion, as an emotion to overcome. This book looks at the complex role that the emotion ‘ fear ‘ has on us. It looks at the link the emotion fear has with other virtues such as altruism and empathy.

This book delves into concepts such as -

• The link between fear and empathy
• Physical defects in the brain affect how much we fear and how we respond to it
• The relationship between altruistm and fear
• Relationship of hormones and fear (parental instincts)
• Literacy: the key to reducing violence?
• Compassion, meditation, and fear

The author Abigail Marsh cites many studies (including her own) that show fear is linked to certain behaviors, and that it can lead to acts of kindness. So how can our fear help us?

1. The link between fear and empathy.

Empathy is the ability of a person to recognize another person’s emotional state. We naturally perceive others we meet as nice or not. The author discovered that empathy was strongly related to the ability to recognize when others feel fear.

The author cites an experiment conducted by Daniel Batson in 1978 that showed a…