{"id":3338,"date":"2015-12-31T14:22:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T19:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=3338"},"modified":"2016-01-01T17:04:46","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T22:04:46","slug":"how-fear-and-anger-impact-our-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/how-fear-and-anger-impact-our-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"How Fear and Anger Impact Our Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/adriana4ever.deviantart.com\/art\/Fear-Anger-533601761\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3341\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"3341\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/how-fear-and-anger-impact-our-thinking\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1000,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3341 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?resize=980%2C980&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?resize=550%2C550&amp;ssl=1 550w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?resize=50%2C50&amp;ssl=1 50w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Last week I happened to hear a fascinating piece on Morning Edition about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/22\/460656763\/how-emotional-responses-to-terrorism-shape-attitudes-toward-policies\">&#8220;How Emotional Responses To Terrorism Shape Attitudes Toward Policies.&#8221;<\/a> \u00a0Shankar Vedantam, NPR&#8217;s social science correspondent, looked into research on how the feelings evoked by recent attacks translate into feelings about policies.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to it here:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" src=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/460656763\/460656764\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the bits that stood out for me (Quotations are taken from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/12\/22\/460656763\/how-emotional-responses-to-terrorism-shape-attitudes-toward-policies\">transcript here<\/a>. \u00a0<strong>Emphasis added<\/strong>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>We tend to feel <em>personally<\/em> at risk<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Research conducted after the 9\/11 attacks, for example, showed not only that many Americans were fearful about terrorism in general, but they thought that they were <strong>personally at very high risk<\/strong> of becoming victims.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Men, especially, turn the fear into anger, reducing\u00a0the feeling of risk but also making it harder to think clearly<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;[Researchers]\u00a0find, in general, <strong>women are more likely to respond to these events with fear and men are more likely to respond with anger<\/strong>. \u00a0Now, on the plus side, <strong>anger reduces your sense of risk<\/strong>, so compared to the fearful people, angry people are less likely to think that they themselves will become victims. <strong>But anger produces its own set of biases<\/strong>. Lerner and others find that by lowering our sense of risk, anger <strong>simplifies our thinking<\/strong> and <strong>increases our willingness to take risks<\/strong>. It <strong>increases our willingness to act aggressively<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>&#8220;Literally less able to think in complex ways&#8221;<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;So, for example, when she shows civilians pictures of Arabs celebrating after the 9\/11 attacks or she shows military and national security experts pictures of an ISIS fighter standing beside American journalist James Foley right before the journalist was beheaded, it <strong>triggers anger<\/strong> in both groups and causes both civilians and experts to simplify their thinking. So<strong> they&#8217;re literally less able to think in complex ways when they&#8217;re angry<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Ways\u00a0to compensate for the emotional reactions<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;I&#8217;m <strong>not sure you can take emotional reactions out of the equation<\/strong>, but you <strong>might be able to limit the effects of the biases<\/strong>, David. The first thing to do is actually just to <strong>recognize that fear and anger change the way we see the world &#8211; to recognize these biases exist<\/strong>. The second thing is <strong>before you make policies, run your ideas by someone else<\/strong>. Having a sounding board provides you with guard rails.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<!-- sktbuilder starter --><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/plugins\/skt-builder\/sktbuilder\/sktbuilder-frontend-starter.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/plugins\/skt-builder\/sktbuilder-wordpress-driver.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> var starter = new SktbuilderStarter({\"mode\": \"prod\", \"skip\":[\"jquery\",\"underscore\",\"backbone\"],\"sktbuilderUrl\": \"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/plugins\/skt-builder\/sktbuilder\/\", \"driver\": new SktbuilderWordpressDriver({\"ajaxUrl\": \"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\", \"iframeUrl\": \"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/how-fear-and-anger-impact-our-thinking\/?sktbuilder=true\", \"pageId\": 3338,  \"nonce\": \"7ca83600d7\", \"pages\": [{\"title\":\"NTD Officers\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/napervilledemocrats.org\\\/ntdo\\\/wp-admin\\\/post.php?post=475&action=sktbuilder\"},{\"title\":\"2022 Election\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/napervilledemocrats.org\\\/ntdo\\\/wp-admin\\\/post.php?post=11490&action=sktbuilder\"}], \"page\": \"How Fear and Anger Impact Our Thinking\" }) });<\/script><!-- end sktbuilder starter -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I happened to hear a fascinating piece on Morning Edition about &#8220;How Emotional Responses To Terrorism Shape Attitudes Toward Policies.&#8221; \u00a0Shankar Vedantam, NPR&#8217;s social science correspondent, looked into<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/how-fear-and-anger-impact-our-thinking\/\">+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[182,181],"class_list":["post-3338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anger","tag-fear"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/fear_anger_by_adriana4ever-d8toxr5.jpg?fit=1000%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BzCg-RQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3338"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3346,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338\/revisions\/3346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}