The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
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The Science of Fear
Why We Fear the Things We Should not- and Put Ourselves in Great Danger

Author: Daniel Gardner

Narrator: Scott Peterson

Unabridged: 12 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 07/20/2009

Categories: Nonfiction, Psychology


Synopsis

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 wee 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 “fifty thousand 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 one hundred thousand or five—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.

Real-world examples, interviews with experts, and fast-paced, lean storytelling make The Science of Fear an entertaining and enlightening tour. Ultimately, by revealing the psychology behind the many ways our “gut” reactions lead us astray and allow others to manipulate us. The Science of Fear will make you brave.

Reviews

This book was rather dry. With the title being fear I kind of expected it to be more dramatic. Not so much. In this book Mr. Gardner reveals to us that the stuff we are scared of, most of the time is really not what we should worry about. He points out how the news media will pick up a story and run......more

Some things that our brain doesn't evaluate correctly: Cancer Smoking marijuana Ebola Traveling by plane Insecticides Mad cow disease Politics Nuclear weapons Nuclear power Terrorism West Nile Virus WMDs Clean water This book is well-intentioned and well-researched. Before I read the book, I knew that a lot of gr......more

. Okay, I’ll own up. Deep down, and not so deep down, I’m the sort of gal who could walk up and down Oxford Street with a placard on my back saying “THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH”. My outlook is definitely pessimistic. This book on the other hand is the absolute opposite, arguing from beginning to end......more

Goodreads review by Atila

Um começo que dá uma mistura de Rápido e Devagar: Duas Formas de Pensar e A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age, falando sobre o viés que temos no que lembramos como mais importante ao ter medo e como estatísticas podem ser usadas para representar algo inofensivo como perig......more

Goodreads review by Scott

Daniel Gardner's "The Science of Fear" is an immensely readable and fascinating examination of the culture of fear that we live in and how it consistently makes us do stupid things. Gardner is fond of quoting FDR's famous quote, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" several times throughou......more