Fear Factor

Talk about your unexpected pleasures. I picked up Al Gore's new book The Assault on Reason and started reading it over the Memorial Day weekend. Who knew I would learn that brain researchers can explain what TV news directors have known all along: "If it bleeds, it leads!" More importantly, Gore goes on to explain why this phenomenon has important consequences for our democracy.

This is not a review of the book and I want to cover only a specific topic which Gore addresses in the first chapter. Fear. Gore makes the case that the more fearful we become the less likely we are to use reason in the decision-making process. Fair enough. But here's where it gets interesting.

Brain researchers explain how the amount of TV you watch can determine how susceptible you are to fear. And now the bad news. Americans watch 4 ½ hours of TV daily. That is 75% of your discretionary time (when you are not sleeping, working, etc.). Unfortunately, this directly affects the amount of time spent reading. Gore outlines how the founding fathers relied on the written word in their presumption of a "well informed citizenry" to make our democracy work. They had no idea that a nation of readers would one day be a nation of TV watchers. And here is the key: how you get your news matters. Quoting from Gore's book, here's why:

"Our capacity for fear is "hardwired" in the brain as an ancient strategy that gives us the ability to respond instantly when survival may be at stake. By contrast, reason is centered in parts of the brain that have most recently evolved and depends upon more subtle processes that give us the ability to discern the emergence of threats before they become immediate and to distinguish between legitimate threats and illusory ones. Brain researchers describe how disturbing images go straight to a part of the brain that is not mediated by language or reasoned analysis."

-Al Gore

Finally someone has explained it. For 5 years my wife has heard me complain that "America has completely over-reacted to 9/11." As Gore notes, research shows that TV can produce "vicarious traumatization" for millions. After the attacks of September 11 people who had frequently watched television exhibited more symptoms of traumatization than less frequent TV viewers. The visual imagery on television can activate parts of the brain involved in emotions in a way that reading about the same event cannot. Television's ability to evoke the fear response is especially significant because Americans spend so much of their lives watching TV.

In other words, we are prime targets to be ruled by fear rather than reason.

Of course, Gore goes on to detail how George Bush used the fear factor to further his political agenda.

Is it any wonder, then, that the two leading contenders for the Republican nomination are Rudy "9/11" Giuliani and John "the Islamofascists will follow us home" McCain. Republican leaders are very scared, and they want you to be scared, too. When a politician depends on exploiting your fears rather than appealing to your ability to reason, they do not deserve your vote.