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Book Report

Student’s Name:

Institution:

Date:
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The science of Fear By Daniel Gardner

Every day, our worries mislead and influence us. The award-winning journalist Dan Gardner

shows how our hunter-gatherer brains cause illogical dread. Afraid Science states that we must

overcome our biological limitations in order to fully understand the risks in the world.

Enlighten the room if you suspect a monster or shark lurks inside. “I hate heavy bags,” the

cartoon chicken said. I have a lot. It's common, especially at night. Good fear. And logical.

Anxiety is harmful. Nose-blocking phobias, anxiety, and a lack of caramel macchiato this book

seeks to frame terror (Williamson, & Keane, 2021). Gardner's book tries to balance the

emotional and rational systems of our brains. Humans dread because they overestimate risk. This

continual conflict between “gut” and “head” frequently defies logic and reason. It's easier to

believe in fear than statistics. They have been redden and evaluated by fear mongering. Actors

do. It benefits corporations and special interests. Thanks to our increasingly computerized access

to information via the internet and cell phones, we are constantly assaulted with warnings and

terror stories. So we're always occupied and bombarded with miscalculated risk fright stories that

cause unwarranted tension.

Gardner's book contains several good instances, including scare headlines caused by

"denominator blindness." Everyone is always being threatened, yet the media rarely reports on it.

He cites a Times article. Strangers killing Britons have doubled in eight years, the newspaper

stated. But the narrative missed the denominator: about 50 million Britons. The risk has risen

from 0.01 percent to 0.015 percent. The risks of vehicle accidents and hyperglycemia should be

much more serious. Gardner attempts to put all of the risks in perspective.

Some fears are valid. Distracted drivers who eat or apply makeup are fair concerns. However,

many fears are unwarranted (Tuttle, 2018). We all have irrational thoughts that stimulate our

limbic and autonomic nervous systems. Unrealistic fears fuel anxiety disorders and panic attacks.
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But some are tricky. A brief Internet search turns up some amusing irrational fear sites.

http://theonlythingtofearisfearitself.blogspot.com/ has a list of irrational fears. So Daniel Gardner

warns us and assesses the situation scientifically. Just turn on the light, said renowned journalist

Dorothy Thompson.
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Reference

Tuttle, H. (2018). Summer Reading. Risk Management, 65(7), 40-40.

Matin, A. M. (2020). Gauging the Propagandist's Talents: William Le Queux's Dubious Place in

Literary History: Part One. Critical Survey, 32(1-2), 79-98.

Peterson, A. L., Young-McCaughan, S., Roache, J. D., Mintz, J., Litz, B. T., Williamson, D.

E., ... & Keane, T. M. (2021). STRONG STAR and the Consortium to Alleviate PTSD:

shaping the future of combat PTSD and related conditions in military and veteran

populations. Contemporary clinical trials, 110, 106583.