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Our Relationship To Fear

Posted Aug 23 2010 by Jonathan Brink in , with 4 Comments

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How much of our fear is self-generated but untrue?

This TED video is presents journalist David McCandless who create infographics to understand the meaning of our data.  When we present data in relationship to other data it gives it a deeper meaning and helps us understand it better.

But at 3:10 he begins to present the data regarding fear. Much of that fear was self-generated by the media including Sars, Swine flu, bird flu and even the millennium bug. What is interesting is listening to the audience laugh in retrospect. In hindsight they know each of these sensations was nothing nothing more than a small problem made big by the media.  And now they can laugh about it.  Much like a horror movie, we take part in the fear, screaming out the moment the bad guy jumps out.  But then we laugh with the joke because we know it was a trick.

Why do you think we do this?

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About the Author

Jonathan BrinkI am an business development and communications consultant. I am also the senior editor and publisher for Civitas Press. I recently published, Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole, New Christianity. (Civitas, 2011)View all posts by Jonathan Brink →

  • Raelene

    I think we do that because we think not believing/acting on the information, presents a greater risk. When something is unknown, we seem to either find evidence to make sense of it, even if temporarily, or just process what weu2019re being told as truth. Thereu2019s comfort when we think we understand. (I love this video clip. I need to hire him to do some knowledge condensing in my brain.)

  • http://jonathanbrink.com Jonathan Brink

    I love infographics. I’ve always believed they work better. I’m actually developing some for my book.

  • Raelene

    Awesome…I can’t wait to see what you develop.

  • http://openmindedconversations.blogspot.com/ jshmueller

    My teenage daughter recently told me she consciously (!) exaggerates her fears to herself and others in order to be prepared if the very worst should actually happen, no matter how likely or unlikely that worst case scenario is.rnrnI guess that means it’s ultimately about trying to gain a sense of control facing an unknown future in a world where we’re very much aware now about all kind of bad things that can and do happen.

Business development and communications for growing businesses.