When the movie "Jaws" was released 35 years ago this Sunday (June 20, 1975), people suddenly were afraid to dip a toe in the ocean. Such fears often aren't based on reality. For instance, you are more likely to be killed by lightning than attacked by a shark, according to research at the University of Florida.
So why do we hold onto irrational fears -- of sharks, flying or dogs, for instance?
A Duke expert is available to comment on why thriller movies, negative news stories, etc., can lead to irrational fears, and how we can rid ourselves of such troubling conditions.
Nestor A. SchmajukProfessor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. He is an expert on associative learning and the complex mechanisms that control both our rational and emotional lives. http://psychandneuro.duke.edu/people?Gurl=%2Faas%2Fpn&Uil=1592&subpage=profile
Quote:"There is a well-known and at least partial explanation for the difficulty in extinguishing ‘irrational' fears or phobias," Schmajuk says. "According to Mowrer's (1939) theory, fear is the consequence of associations formed between sharks and attacks -- or planes and accidents -- that result in fear and avoidance of the ocean, or of flying.
"In order to extinguish those associations, people need to swim in the ocean without being attacked by a shark, or experience uneventful flights.
"However, and this is the problem, because people avoid swimming and flying, they cannot extinguish those associations and, therefore, they remain irrationally afraid. Compulsive obsessive disorders can be explained in a similar way.
"And dogs? Dogs we see every day, cannot avoid, and they don't bite that often."