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.
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Summary:
- Fear and anxiety (and anger + aggression) are always
Why can't people see that they are wrong?
It's so very hard to change people's minds
Just before I wrote this, a consultant shared with me that "in almost every case I consult for, the biggest problem in the organisation are with the people whom I have to present my findings to. It is those with power who simply cannot accept changing their minds, no matter how compelling the evidence is."
I couldn't help but smile when he said this. A few days earlier, his staff (whom I knew because he was a former intern of mine) shared that his biggest challenge in office is changing the minds of his bosses (i.e. the same consultant).
A real loop of irony - everyone thinks that everyone else has problems changing their minds even when they are wrong, though we ourselves are resistant to doing so.
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Unforunately this represents the reality of changing minds. Before we really make up our mind on something, we can be influenced by a large number of factors - from what others are doing, to what someone in a position of authority has said, to how our day is going.
But once we have made up our minds, especially if we declared publicly what we believe in, it becomes very difficult to change. When we put people in a brain scanner and observe their reactions to an opposing view, the underlying reasons for resistance to change becomes clear:
a) We might have confirmation bias - there is very little brain activation because an opposing opinion doesn't register.
b) Or, we might feel like an opposing view is an attack - a region in our brains that regulates fear, anger, and anxiety triggers - we feel the need to defend ourselves. And as the example on climate change belows shows, we might end up even more convinced we are right
c) Or, we might suffer from cognitive dissonance - being wrong causes us to feel pain, literally. The brain regions that regulate pain starts firing. And to avoid this pain, we try every means to justify.
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In the pieces below, find more examples of just how difficult it is to change someone's mind, even for the great Max Planck. Read about the lengths that Barry Marshall and Robin Warren went to prove what caused stomach ulcers. Or how even the founder of the standardised test couldn't convince people to stop using it.
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In other pieces, find out what works in changing someone's mind, or in altering a first impression.
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 We understand life through stories. Once formulated, our stories become very difficult to change, even though some of these stories are inaccurate. |  If evidence doesn't change minds, what does? |  Why evidence does not change our minds. |
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 Cognitive dissonance - it's painful when we're wrong. |  Change happens one funeral at a time |  How far must one go to show that others are wrong? |
 Why is it so difficult to convince others about man-made climate change |  How do you change a first impression? |  The man who came up with standardised test, and who fought against it. |
 We had to be convinced to eat sliced bread |  Cognitive Dissonance |  How to change a poor prescription? |
 How much do you love her? |  Friend or Foe? From killing each other to celebrating together to killing each other |  Even experts have trouble deciding |
 Would you eat this fish? |  Is this ramen tasty? |  Why do Germans eat potatoes |
 The Asch experiment - we are hesitant to stand out from the majority |  Climate change - how does evidence for or against change our minds? |