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For lessons on the topic of Fear, follow this link.


The Old English term fear meant not the emotion engendered by a calamity or disaster, but rather the event itself. The first recorded usage of the term "fear" with the sense of the “emotion of fear” is found in a medieval work written in Middle English, composed circa 1290. The most probable explanation for the change in the meaning of the word "fear" is the existence in Old English of the related verb frighten, which meant “to terrify, take by surprise”.[2]






Fear can be described with different terms in relation to the degree of fear that is experienced. It varies from mild caution to extreme phobia and paranoia. Fear is related to a number of additional cognitive and emotional states including worry, anxiety, terror, horror, panic, and dread. Experiences of fear are, by their very nature, impacting and, in this way, can remain in the unconscious mind long after exposure; where they may then manifest as nightmares. Fear may also be experienced within a larger group or social network. In this way, personal fears are compounded by social influence to become mass hysteria.



Common fears



Fear of death

Psychologists have addressed the hypothesis that fear of death motivates religious commitment, and that it may be alleviated by assurances about an afterlife. Empirical research on this topic has been equivocal. According to Kahoe and Dunn, people who are most firm in their faith and attend religious services weekly are the least afraid of dying. People who hold a loose religious faith are the most anxious, and people who are not religious are intermediate in their fear of death. A survey of people in various Christian denominations showed a positive correlation between fear of death and dogmatic adherence to religious doctrine. In other words, Christian fundamentalism and other strict interpretations of the Bible are associated with greater fear of death. Furthermore, some religious orientations were more effective than others in allaying that fear.[9]

In another study, data from a sample of white, Christian men and women were used to test the hypothesis that traditional, church-centered religiousness and de-institutionalized spiritual seeking are distinct ways of approaching fear of death in old age. Both religiousness and spirituality were related to positive psychosocial functioning, but only church-centered religiousness protected subjects against the fear of death.[10]


Another common theory that is sometimes recognized is that people fear death because they do not know what happens afterwards.Though some people have a religion or a preconceived cognation of what will happen after death. They fear death because they cling to life and enjoy too much to let it go.




  1. Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.). Handbook of emotions. (pp.573-593). New York: The Guilford Press.
  7. Emotional Control Circuit Of Brain's Fear Response Discovered. Retrieved on May 14, 2008.
  8. Berdoy M, Webster J, Macdonald D (2000). Fatal Attraction in Rats Infected with Toxoplasma gondii. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B267:1591-1594. PMID 11007336
  9. Kahoe, R. D., & Dunn, R. F. (1976). The fear of death and religious attitudes and behavior, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14, 379-382.
  10. Wink, P. (2006). Who is afraid of death? Religiousness, spirituality, and death anxiety in late adulthood. Journal of Religion, Spirituality, & Aging, 18, 93-110.

Further reading

Bourke, Joanna, Fear: a cultural history, Virago (2005) Robin, Corey, Fear: the history of a political idea, Oxford University Press (2004) Duenwald, Mary. The Physiology of ... Facial Expressions, Discover magazine, v.26, n.1, January 2005 Gardner, Dan, Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, Random House, Inc., 2008. ISBN 0771032994 Krishnamurti, Jiddu, On Fear, Harper Collins, ISBN 0-06-251014-2 (1995)

External links