What is it about?
While President George W. Bush was accused of relying on fear tactics to garner public support for his military campaign in the Middle East, this set of research has shown that fear is not necessarily the political linchpin that it may seem. In a series of four studies, conducted over a period of a year and half after 9/11, more than 500 participants in the San Francisco bay area reported their emotions after viewing photographs of the damaged World Trade Center. What this study showed was that people who were fearful tended to be more concerned about avoiding public places. Angry individuals, on the other hand, tended to rally behind the idea of armed aggression. The differential effects of fear and anger are in concert with psychological theories on emotions.
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Why is it important?
Events like the terrorist attack of 9/11 naturally provoke anger in all of us. It’s what we do with the anger that is important. Failing to keep our emotions in check cannot only lead us to problems in our personal lives, but also on the world stage. The price tag for the wars in the Middle East was lost lives, misdirected resources and jeopardized international relations.
Perspectives
Charles Darwin knew since 1872 when he published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals that each emotion holds a unique function. Today, we still use the evolutionarily old circuities to crudely respond to the important events in our environment. Once fear is triggered, we tend to hide and avoid. When anger is activated, we attack and approach.
Professor Violet Cheung
University of San Francisco
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The emotional construal of war: Anger, fear, and other negative emotions., Peace and Conflict Journal of Peace Psychology, January 2008, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1080/10781910802017289.
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