The extent to which people address their fear by taking action depends on whether they are able to do so, and whether they think their behavior will resolve the threat. Although this may be true, research suggests increasing fear does not necessarily make people more likely to act. A widely held belief is that the more intense the fear the threat message arouses, the more compelling the message it conveys. Of psychology research provides some answers.įear appeals, also called scare tactics, typically consist of a threat communication combined with, ideally, a means to terminate the threat (i.e., quit smoking, stop flying, keep your distance). But how effective are fear appeals? More than six decades People are encouraged to quit smoking through gory pictures of cancerous lungs, prompted to address climate change through images of floods and forest fires, and, now, urged to comply to Covid-19 guidelines through graphs of exponentially increasing infection rates. As a consequence, scaring people has long been recognized – by health professionals, policy makers, politicians, and parents – as a powerful tool to evoke behavior change. Unlike other animals, who mostly experience fear in the present, humans have an unlimited capacity for being scared, thanks to their ability to reflect on the past and imagine the future. It sets into motion a wide range of bodily responses to ultimately deal with the threat (i.e., fight, flight, or freeze). Fear is a potent emotion that arises when we perceive a threat.

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