FEAR

“Fear” means “the bad feeling that you have when you are in danger, when something bad might happen, or when a particular thing frightens you” in the Oxford Word Power Dictionary, so; everybody thinks bad and negative things because of the known meaning of “fear” word. In fact there are also positive consequences and effects of fearing as success in more argument-based processing of fear-relevant persuasive information, that are the results of fear-arousing health threat communications. We can avoid the destructive of fear by motivating ourselves in a logical way.

A significant positive effect of fearing is about the use of fear arousal in health. According to A.C. Ruiter Robert (Journal of behavior medicine), it may be an efficient tool in health education practice. A.C. Ruiter Robert studied this subject in his book “Evoked fear and effects of appeals on attitudes to performing breast self-examination: an information-processing perspective.” It was hypothesized that “fear arousal motivates respondents to more argument-based processing of fear-relevant persuasive information. Respondents first read information about breast cancer in which fear was manipulated. After measuring fear arousal, respondents read a persuasive message about performing BSE (breast self-examination). Analyses with reported fear, but not manipulated fear, found support for the hypothesis. Respondents who reported mild fear of breast cancer based their attitude toward BSE more on the arguments provided than respondents who reported low fear of breast cancer. “ (Robert, A.C. Ruiter, Health Education Research, Vol. 16, No. 3, 307-319, June 2001)

In this study we see an exact effect of fear. Breast self-examination (BSE) is a test that has to be made by every woman in every month. It includes “looking” and “feeling” stages. Looking stage includes looking at breast from mirror and controlling if any unordinary shape occurs. Feeling stage includes touching the breasts and examining them if any strange mass occurs in them. In the study of A.C. Robert, participants who are affected by a fear arousal accept performing breast self examination easier than the participants who does not affected high fear arousal. This shows the effect of fear in persuading people.

 

Another study about this concept is made by Stephen Sutton and Robert Hallett in Journal of Behavioral Medicine. It reports an “experimental study investigating the role of cognitive factors and fear in mediating the effects of fear-arousing health threat communications. In this study Seventy-seven cigarette smokers were shown either a videotape about smoking or a control videotape on a different health topic before completing a questionnaire assessing their intentions to try to quit, the level of fear aroused, and three cognitive factors: (a) probability difference (perceived reduction in risk of health damage that follows from successful cessation), (b) utility of health damage, and (c) confidence. The smoking videotape influenced probability difference, utility, intentions, and follow-up reports of attempts at cessation. As predicted, both probability difference and utility influenced intention, which in turn influenced behavior. Neither confidence nor the amount of fear aroused by the videotape had significant effects on intention.” (Sutton, Stephen. Hallet, Robert. “Journal of Behavioural Medicine”. Springer Nederlands. December 21, 2004.)

As we see in this study, fear plays an important role in people’s behaviors. Sometimes it affects people in a positive way as this example. In this example feel of fearing keeps people away from smoking habit and persuades them that smoking is harmful for health. In the study, a videotape about the bad effects of smoking is shown to the people and as a result of this, participants of the study affects from the video. The sense of fearing is the main reason that affects these people in this study.

After these examples, we can understand that we can also avoid the destructive effects of fear. For example we can avoid the fear of being unsuccessful in the exams by using similar persuasion methods that Ruiter Robert, Stephen Sutton and Robert Hallett. We can do this simply by observing the students who fails in the same exam before and talking to them. This will provide a fear arousal and motivate us to work harder. Another example of this kind of application can be made for health. There is a website named www.realage.com.tr . In this site you answer a questionnaire about your daily habits and lifestyle than it shows the real biological age of you. By this way, if your age is counted higher than the real, it motivates you to live healthier by the effect of fear arousal.

To sum up, we can clearly say that, fear can have positive consequences and we can avoid the destructive effects of fear, like seeing the bad results when we don’t do the requirements for a concept like health or education. The fear arousal is the main factor that motivates and keeps us doing a wrong thing. As we see, fearing sometimes can be helpful for our lives.

Works cited:

·                    Sutton, Stephen. Hallet, Robert. “Journal of Behavioural Medicine”. Springer Nederlands.

·                    Robert, A.C. Ruiter, Health Education Research, Vol. 16, No. 3, 307-319, June 2001.