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

Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

Scares You To Death!

There's little in this book that most of us do not already know -- in our heads. But that's the point. Human beings are much more likely to react to what's in our gut. So we need this reminder badly and more often than we get it!

Everyone should read or hear this book. Parents, senior citizens, voters, TV watchers, drivers, flyers -- the list goes on and on. We need to be reminded that perspective is needed in determining risk factors in our lives. And we need to be reminded that many people and organizations profit greatly from exploiting our tendencies to fear.

Whether it's for monetary gain (hello, pharmaceuticals!), power retention (politicians, police chiefs), or ratings (TV movies, newscasts) motives, fear is the go-to message with which we all are constantly bombarded. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Horrible as any possibility is, statistics prove that the vast majority of us will not be murdered; our children will not be abducted by strangers; occasional insomnia will not lead to social banishment and death. The true dangers may be in self-induced stress, in keeping children inside and overly-protective, in taking too much medication.

Sure, the book's content is repetitive, but so is the constant drumming of fear we get elsewhere every day. A little repetition is justified in getting out this message of perspective. "The Science of Fear" could change for the better the way we think, the way we consume, and the way we vote.

De-Stress

Would you listen to The Science of Fear again? Why?

We are only pawns in selling media. They create the demand in our own minds through by distorting perspective.

Great book!

Listening to this book teaches you a lot about the way our brains work, what to be scared of, and what not to, despite what you hear on the news.

More important now than ever before

Do not hesitate to read this book, your life may depend upon it.
You will learn exactly why statements like that are used to manipulate you into buying, voting, and thinking in a way to make others prosper.
In this crazy world of Covid we are now living in, I would love to see an update to this book come out to cover the past few years.
Get this book, in any format. Read it, and then read it again.

A culture of fear

Any additional comments?

Some of Gardner's points may seem obvious, but so do most good ideas after they are expressed in a simple way. This book shows ways in which polititians, the media, and big business act to influence public opinion about what is risky. It also provides clues as to how the process might be a result of well meaning individuals.

I also liked Scott Peterson's reading.

A necessary read

In the age of covid when everybody is scared and not paying attention to the numbers and bigger picture, this is a timely book. I highly suggest reading this!

Great insight, but repetitive

Gave some great facts and the for the first few chapters I was very engaged….. however the book went on a little too long in my opinion and repeated the same theme multiple times.

Too repetitive

There were hours of examples all demonstrating the same few points. This book had very few core points. But, it is filled with long list of examples illustrating the same few points.

Misleading title for a list of summaries

What disappointed you about The Science of Fear?

There is nothing about science of fear in this book. Just a summary of recent research on human perception and cognition taken as summaries of other books.

Cannot be called authored piece of work as it only summarizes works of other authors - namely Daniel Kahneman. Nearly no original contribution whatsoever.
Writing a summary is fine but you should not mislead audience - what happened with editors and publishers responsibilities

Has The Science of Fear turned you off from other books in this genre?

A dangerous precedent

What didn’t you like about Scott Peterson’s performance?

Misleading title

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Angry

Any additional comments?

Editors and publishers should label products correctly

Be Afraid

Be afraid Daniel Gardner writes another book. Very little useful information. He should re-publish the book under the title "Why I Hate George Bush".