The Science of Fear

Why We Fear the Things We Should Not - and Put Ourselves in Great Danger

By: Daniel Gardner

Narrated by: Scott Peterson

From terror attacks to the War on Terror, bursting real-estate bubbles to crystal meth epidemics, sexual predators to poisonous toys from China, our list of fears seems to be exploding. And yet, we are the safest and healthiest humans in history. Irrational fear is running amok, and often with tragic results. In the months after 9/11, when people decided to drive instead of fly - believing they were avoiding risk - road deaths rose by 1,595. Those lives were lost to fear.

The Science of Fear is a disarmingly cheerful roundtrip shuttle to the new brain science, dissecting the fears that misguide and manipulate us every day. As award-winning journalist Daniel Gardner demonstrates, irrational fear springs from how humans miscalculate risks. Our hunter-gatherer brains evolved during the old Stone Age and struggle to make sense of a world utterly unlike the one that made them. Numbers, for instance, confuse us. Our "gut" tells us that even if there aren't "50,000 predators...on the Internet prowling for children," as a recent U.S. Attorney General claimed, then there must be an awful lot. And even if our "head" discovers that the number is baseless and no one actually knows the truth - there could be 100,000 or 500,000 - we are still more fearful simply because we heard the big number. And it is not only politicians and the media that traffic in fearmongering. Corporations fatten their bottom lines with fear. Interest groups expand their influence with fear. Officials boost their budgets with fear. With more information, warnings and scary stories coming at us every day from every direction, we are more prone than ever to needlessly worry.

©2008 Daniel Gardner (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"Excellent.... analyses everything from the media's predilection for irrational scare stories to the cynical use of fear by politicians pushing a particular agenda....What could easily have been a catalogue of misgovernance and stupidity instead becomes a cheery corrective to modern paranoia." ( The Economist)

Feel the Fear But Do It Anyway

If you're looking for a biological exploration of the mechanics of fear, then this isn't the book you're looking for.

Instead, this book looks at the social and psychological causes and effects of fear, and how to get over the negative impacts of fear.

Not the best book around, but definitely insightful.

Great listen

This is a great book with interesting content and well structured. It moves at a good pace and addresses topics that are applicable to everyone. It can get a little heavy on the statistics at times but other than that a generally good experience. Would recommend to everyone.

The Business and Politics of Fear

I think I only heard the word "Amygdala" once. Not much science here at all.

Lots of Factoids

I purchased this because of all the great reviews. I found the delivery dry and dull, as if reading a list from the Guiness Book of Records or an Encyclopedia a lot of factoids collected from various schools of thought. Wasn't cohesive enough for me, so I stopped half way. I will try and listen to it again and if I change my mind, will amend review.

If the News on the TV scares you, you should read.

You, just like everybody else, are guilty of worrying about the wrong things in life. Why is that, and what can you do about it? This book offers great insight into some of the internal mechanisms in the brain that lead us astray when attempting to estimate potential risks. Daniel also gives us some mental tools to defend ourselves when news, media, activists, politicians, corporations, and non-profits try to sway our opinions on what is and what isn't important. Overall a good read and great listen.

Very educational

I found this book really enlightening to some areas where I had ignorance in. I have the hard copy and the audible version. The information is so dense visually, I found the audible much easier to listen to and learn from. I highly suggest this book to everyone.

Good—with numerous holes in the analysis.

Gardner has provided a valuable resource in understanding how fear impacts our decision-making. I believe that Gardner has difficulty seeing his own political bias in his analysis as it relates to the war on terror.

Excellent!

I have always beleived in the mantra "be careful of what you fear" as I have seen so many people go to great lengths to avoid products, situations or events that they feared - irrationally.

The author lays out the logic that I have tried to express in a simple, easy to understand manner.

Great listen!

I didn't like the start, but it ended quite well

What did you like best about The Science of Fear? What did you like least?

Part 1 of this book (as it is divided into 2 files downloads) was not very enjoyable; I have heard it better explainations in other books. However, the 2nd part (i.e. the 2nd file download) was a lot better, so I found in the end that I liked the book.

Good information, even if a bit repetitive

An I opening book as many of us take for granted the dangers of day-to-day life even though statistics certainly show otherwise.
The author is a little repetitive in driving a few critical points home but definitely gets the point across.