Fear is one of the basic human emotions. Basically, its role is to protect us against dangers. “It’s an alarm that rings in the face of threats”, explains the Dr Camillo Zacchia, psychologist and vice-president of the organization Phobies-Zéro. But we are all different, he nuances, and some people have stronger alarms than others, especially in the face of what are called “great societal fears”.
“If we look at the great societal fears, which concern the survival of the human species – what is called the end of the world, in the academy of catastrophism –, usually, it is nuclear power, the pandemic, the religious (therefore, an end of the world which would be an act of God) and the environment”, specifies the professor of sociology and anthropology at Concordia University Jean-Philippe Warren.
Since the Middle Ages, great fears have evolved in cycles, he explains. With the scientific advances of the 19e century, fears linked to major geological catastrophes (arising from the theory of catastrophism) came to be added to the fears conveyed mainly, until then, by religion. And if the cycles of great fears could stretch for centuries in medieval times, they now have shorter lifespans that coincide with great events – such as the Cuba crisis, in 1962, which marks the culmination from nuclear fear until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
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Jean-Philippe Warren, professor of sociology and anthropology at Concordia University
[Les peurs] change if you are young, old, on the left, on the right… People on the right, for example, are more afraid of an end of the world which would be a kind of parousia, divine. And on the other side, people on the left are more afraid of an environmental catastrophe.
Jean-Philippe Warren, professor of sociology and anthropology at Concordia University
In the United States, he adds, 2% of people believe that the end of the world will come from zombies and 1%, aliens. “And if there were ever any mysterious signs in the sky, I’m sure that 1% would get bigger!” »
The great fears would thus be mainly conditioned by events – in particular geopolitical or linked to current events –, but also subject to technological progress and the context in which we live. Since the pandemic, polls show that around one in five people believe that the end of the world will be caused by a virus, whereas it was not part of the fears a decade ago, advances the professor.
“If we were in a context of war, like in Ukraine, our fears would probably be very different; we wouldn’t worry too much about the environment,” says Léonie Lemire Théberge, psychologist and teacher.
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The psychologist Léonie Lemire Théberge
“I teach at CEGEP, and artificial intelligence scares us. We see works, we do tests ourselves… ChatGPT, it can do the job students ! “, she says.
Fear, vector of change?
Faced with everything that is happening around us, it is therefore our perception that will ensure that fear manages to have a hold on us – perception influenced by our temperament, our genetics, our education.
“If I have an anxious temperament, I tend to see the worst and there are shootings, I will probably start to fear more when my children go outside, illustrates Léonie Lemire Théberge. Among people who were already afraid of diseases, with COVID, this fear really took over. »
Fear, however, can sometimes become a vehicle for change. This is how groups or governments have sought to raise people’s awareness of the environment – by creating fear in the face of this issue – to push them to act and change certain habits that would be harmful to the environment, explains psychologist Camillo Zacchia.
PHOTO RAY BARLLARO, PROVIDED BY CAMILLO ZACCHIA
The Dr Camillo Zacchia, psychologist and vice-president of Phobies-Zero
There are certain fears that we use because we want to make people move. For example, to make people aware of the dangers of cigarettes, what do we do? We put warnings to increase fear. If we want to affect the well-being of the planet, we have to make people aware: the planet is dying.
The Dr Camillo Zacchia, psychologist and vice-president of Phobies-Zero
Fear is also often used as a weapon in totalitarian governments, with the aim of uniting the population in the face of a common enemy – real or not – while ensuring its cohesion and loyalty, notes Jean-Philippe Warren.
“Sometimes when we want to mobilize people, whether it’s for the environment or the importance of protecting ourselves against COVID, we will put more importance on it. But not everyone will receive the same message. People will say, “It’s not real, it’s a conspiracy.” On the other hand, we have created hyperanxious people. Some become paralyzed by it, are very worried, discouraged. I know people who say, “I’m not going to have children because the planet is falling apart.” So, it could still be quite intense in some individuals, ”says the Dr Zacchia.
“What is interesting, he adds, is that to try to move certain people, we have to send messages of disaster. COVID has brought out a lot of interesting elements in human nature: how we apprehend a danger, how we understand it. There are people who saw it as extremely threatening, others who minimized the danger; they haven’t changed anything in their lives. »