WEBVTT - How Fear Works 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should Know 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.360 from House stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.119 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Charles W. Chuck Bryant is 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.680 looking deeply into the eyes of Nicola Tesla right now. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.960 For some reason, I never noticed that he literally is 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.920 staring at me the whole time. You know, I once 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.920 wrote an article for how stuff Works dot Com about 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:36.240 why the eyes and some paintings follow you. Oh really, Yeah, dude, 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:38.640 why didn't you tell me about that? I don't know. 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.080 We've never a podcast about it because it would literally 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.320 be like a five minute podcast. Well, maybe we can 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:47.520 bring it up, but yeah, your podcast. Maybe it's worth reading, though. 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.800 I think if you typed in eyes and painting or 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.720 something like that in the search bar how stuff works 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:56.800 dot Com, it would bring it up. I figured it 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.520 was because the eyes were cut out and there was 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.680 a psychopathic killer behind. It's a painting, that's to the 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:07.640 second paget. Also, while we're just doing pluggyness, right, why 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:09.800 don't you follow us on Twitter? It's a it's a 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.959 party over there, right. Our handle sometimes not what you 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:15.440 think right off the top of your head. But it 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.400 makes sense when you hear it s Y s K podcast, right, 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.920 And there's no like We're not like um Justin Bieber 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.520 or Lady Gaga. We don't say stupid stuff about being backstage. 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:34.000 We're actually a cool news aggregator, right, okay? Uh? And 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:35.800 then also we're on Facebook. We have a stuff you 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.640 should know Facebook page, Chuck and Chuck. You kill it 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.480 on that interacting with people coming out, shaking hands in 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.120 your robe and you know, with a little shrimp in 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.000 your mouth from being in the green room. You know, Hey, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:47.880 how's it going, good to meet you? Thanks for coming out. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.400 I can't imagine any were disgusting any coming at someone 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.080 with a robe and shrimp in my well. It happens 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.080 every day on Facebook, right, Um. And then I guess 0:01:56.080 --> 0:02:00.160 now are you ready for the intro? Yes? Yeah, I 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:01.720 want I want you to go back with me to 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:07.720 uh alright, freshman in college. Baby, I'm a freshman in 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:12.680 high school. And um, I am in my room in 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.359 uh Kennesaw, Georgia, in my parents house, and it's nighttime 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:19.680 and I'm reading I don't remember what I'm reading, but 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:21.919 I'm like sitting on my bed reading. I'm actually laying 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.239 with my elbows up on my bed reading right. Um, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.440 And I look over and notice that my closet door 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.359 is cracked slightly. This is abnormal. Usually my closet door 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:38.400 is shut tightly. Still. Uh yeah, even still, even still 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.000 to this day, I don't see any reason to leave 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.040 it open. It's funny how this little thing stick around. 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.600 So I remember making this little comment to myself, like, oh, 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.040 you know, that's that's weird. It's probably somebody in there, right, 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:54.840 But I go back to reading, and uh, I get this, 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.280 this annoying sensation. That's like getting my attention out of 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.440 the corner of my eye. And I look over and 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:03.440 now the door is correct by about three times more 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:08.000 than it was before. Well, I have tremendous amounts of sense. 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.080 So I throw my book down and start running towards 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.400 the door of my room. Right as I get to 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.919 my to the handle, my hands on the door knob 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.360 and starting to turn it, the closet door is thrown open. 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.840 And my dad, because I'm going I'm not kidding, this 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.639 is a true story. I went from a standing position 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:26.919 with my hand on the door knob to completely flat 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.200 on my back and like maybe a half of a motion. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.000 It wasn't even one full motion, right, I was on 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.960 my back, screaming, staring at my dad, screaming in terror, 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.880 looking at him like you were looking at Nikola Tesla. 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.880 I see that it's my dad, but I'm so afraid 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.880 that I can't stop screaming. My mom has time to 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.560 make it up the stairs into my room and start 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.840 yelling at my dad, asking what did you do to Josh? 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.440 And I'm sitting there looking at them having this argument, 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:59.160 still screaming, going back and forth. Character. He is a character. 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:07.320 He looked so sad and so remorseful, realized. But I 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.160 I don't think I was wrong in in in noticing 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.760 a little glimmer of disappointment in his eye, like what 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.440 happened to you? Kid? Did you get to be such 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:20.839 a panny waist? So there is my fear story, Chuck, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:25.159 that's my great fear story. We used to antagonize Eddie, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.640 my friend Eddie in college. He was his roommates to 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.840 Eddy for years and we scare him all the time, 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.320 so awful, like coming home from the movie what was 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:40.200 the one with the author the James con Oh Misery misery, 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:44.320 came home from misery and like mate Bouten, literally unsto 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.280 screwed lightbulbs all over the apartment like hid in closets. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.120 Eddie was smart enough to turn on the television for 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.200 light that we didn't count on that next time we 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.480 unplug the TV. It's tough to give him past that. Yeah, 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:58.280 it was always fun and he got to kick out 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.760 of it too, you could tell, which we'll get too later. 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.160 So yeah, we're gonna get to a lot in this one. Right, 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.440 This is how fear works. This is gonna be a 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.240 good one. I think. I think it already is. Well, okay, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.400 thanks to your story. So, Chuck, I think we should 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:17.919 start out by basically defining fear. Webster's Dictionary defines fear 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.800 as such river in high school, and that was just 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.920 the way to start your You thought you were so smart. Yeah, uh, 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.400 it defines it. It doesn't, but we define it as 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.880 a chain reaction in the brain starts with a stimuli 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.720 can be many different things, and it ends up with 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.159 the fight or flight response in the end, exactly which 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.119 we know that you know about the fireflight response. Having 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.440 listened to this podcast faithfully since two thousand eight, yes, right. Um, 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.600 So we're not gonna go into too much detail about 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.880 the fireflight response because you already know this, but suffice 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:55.520 to say that fear is an autonomic response, which so 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.080 the autonomic nervous system. We've never mentioned this before. It's 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:03.680 really nervous. It is the nervous system that responds to stress, 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.320 and it's made up of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.240 nervous systems. I don't think we have talked about that happened, no, 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.279 but it's like the umbrella nervous system that's like whoa, 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.600 okay and then calm down right right, And autonomic I 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.360 mean it almost means automatic in this case because it's 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.599 just triggered. We don't plan it. That just happens. That 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:27.640 pointer Sister's song could have been called autonomic. It's so interchangeable, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.240 you know. Um so, yeah, well, there's not a lot 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.720 we can do, and we don't necessarily know what's going on. 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:39.440 Like um, analysis of the situation isn't necessarily a part 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:44.839 of being afraid. It's more like get out of there, right. Yeah, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.240 we'll find yeah, we'll find that there's other ways that 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:51.720 that can happen right, coming soon as in a few minutes. Yeah, 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.600 So let's let's just go over what parts of the 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.560 brain are responsible for fear, right, Yeah, and this will 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.080 come up in in a in a minute here when 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:04.040 we describe how the paths go, there's just ended it. 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.000 But the thalamus um picks up on things that you 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.800 hear and see and smell um and in the way 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.240 of sensory data. Uh, sensory cortex interprets this. You got. 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.320 The hippocampus its stores the sea horse. Yes, that's right. 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.600 It's stores and receives conscious memories and starts to establish 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.520 like a context for what's going on. In this case, 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:31.120 fear amygdala plays a big part. It decodes the emotions 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:35.480 and determines the threat and stores old fear memories, fear 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.000 memories like if if something really bad happens to you 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:39.960 and you have to create like a real fear memory. 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.880 The amygdalas where that sits, okay, And then finally the 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.920 hypothalamus is where it always ends up no matter which 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.080 path it takes. People talk about those paths. The hypothalamus 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.480 is the on off switch for the fight or flight response. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.560 It makes it's go time, and the only part of 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:56.920 your brain that can tell the hypothalamus whether it's go 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:01.000 time or whether go time is past. Is the right 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.160 It's the gate keeper to the autonomic nervous system. I'm 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.120 still just as thrilled about the brain as I was 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.440 when we first started studying this stuff. I know, I 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:13.760 think I'm more thrills. Yeah, so, Chuck, Josh. There is 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:18.160 a guy named Joseph Ledo. Have you heard of him? 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:20.440 He is a nervoscientist at n y U. And he 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:26.040 came up with two categories for our fear response. Yeah, 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:30.560 and they happened simultaneously. But there is what he's dubbed 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.880 a low road and a high road. And like I said, 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.120 both of them happened at the same time. Um. But 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.040 the low road is basically like the quick, nasty, dirty 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.480 response to fear, right, like, holy crap. Right, So um, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.160 let's say there's a pretty good example in this article 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.800 by Julia Layton. Yeah, actually, both of the ones who 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.679 are recording today or Julia Layne's Yeah, way to go Layton, 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:56.880 She's good. Um. So, uh, let's say that you're sitting 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.440 at home, right and your underwear with a beer perched 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.160 on your stomach, and you're just watching some wrestling have 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.280 you been watching me have webcams set up in your house? 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.200 You do a lot of stuff because I encourage you 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:15.240 too without you know it. Okay, um uh, So you're 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.320 sitting at home as such, and um, all of a sudden, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:24.240 your door just starts rattling, right, yeah, Okay, there's something 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.679 that's going to happen called the low road for your response, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.920 and that is the sound and the sight of your 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.160 door rattling is the century data that suddenly goes into 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:40.360 what the thalamus, which sorts it and says, hey, um, amygdala, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.720 I need your help. It's like forwarding the email. Yeah, 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.800 like there is a potential threat here and we need 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:51.679 to respond. And the amigellas says, you know what, you're right, thalamus, 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:58.120 I'm going to contact the hypocampus now, the hypothalamus right 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.960 and and basically get the fear fight or flight response going. Yeah, 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.360 just like just in case, let's go ahead and turn 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.839 it on. Right. So you are now your beer is 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.280 spilled all over the floor because you left up out 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.360 of your your easy chair. Okay. At the same time 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.520 this is going on, um, the high road response is 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.360 taking place, thankfully. Yes, So the high road responses, uh 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.400 it takes longer, but it gives you a much more 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.400 thoughtful analysis of what's going on. There's a couple of 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:30.160 extra stops along the way. Uh, that leads to reason 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.720 and context and that kind of thing. So this time 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.680 it goes to the century cortex first, and the century 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.080 cortex says, you know, what, this has happened before or no, 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.400 it's it says like there's more than one interpretation. Has 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:49.200 it happened before? And the hippocampus says, you know, and 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:54.280 remember that time in that big windstorm the tree fell 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:56.680 outside and he thought of the boogeman was coming to 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.400 get you, So remember that, right, Like, the hippocampus goes 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.200 and gets your memories to to analyze them for context. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:06.360 Compared to this, the sensory cortex is saying, like, what 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.280 else is going on here right there? At exactly? Is 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:14.040 their patio furniture moving? Are their trees scraping on the window? 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.559 And all of a sudden you're like, okay, it is 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.239 wind right, that's right. But let's say that your um, 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.600 your your your brain, your sensory cortex said, um, no, 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.120 what I hear is a guy shouting like I'm coming 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:30.679 in right and your hippocampus is like, well, last time 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:32.480 that happened, like guy came in a ski mask and 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.319 I was hog type for three days before anybody around me. Right, 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.320 it was not the wind. So that leap up out 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.240 of the easy chair is your low road response and 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.880 standing there while your brain is interpreting the rest of 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.200 the data and then coming to the conclusion that yeah, 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.120 there's somebody coming through the door and then running out 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.240 your back door. That's the result of the high road response. Yeah. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.720 Or if you determine or inside the brain that hey, 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.880 this is just a windstorm, then it sends the message 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:02.640 to the amygdala saying, hey, go tell the hypothalamus just 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.840 shut down the whole system. Not the whole system, because 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.080 you'd be dead, but shut down the fight or flight response. 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.960 It's just trees. And Emily is on the ceiling still 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.680 at this point because her high road is probably longer 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.239 than mine and the low road very very quick. Yes, 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:22.760 we heard gun shots one time in l A and 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.200 Emily literally it was like on the floor. I turned around, 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:26.840 like did you hear that? And she was on the 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:32.400 ground like in prone position. Wow. But you know I 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:34.400 grew up rough tumble, so I heard gun shots a 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:35.880 lot more than she did. Did you have a hard 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:40.280 scrapple youth, I did. I don't even know that, not 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:45.240 like the the streets of acron Rare, Emily grew the 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.720 tender streets of acron Ohio. Yeah, they were very tender, 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.079 all right, Josh. So you pointed out, which is very important, 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.480 that both of these things are happening at the same time. 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:56.360 And that is why, even if you realize very quickly 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.079 that there is no imminent danger, you're still going me 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.640 coming down from that fight or flight response for a 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.400 little bit, because your low road has also already been triggered, right, 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.880 and it all ends on hypothal in the hypothalmus either way. Yes, 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.880 are we done? I guess? So that was really rapid, man. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.840 Now we're not done, because we gotta talk about emotions, 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.280 right and why we get scared. Well, yeah, there's very 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:26.400 little um argument about what emotions are for, and basically 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:33.000 they are motivators, right, yep, they are survival based motivators. Specifically, um, 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:39.480 the basic ones there's uh, let's see, anger, fear, surprised discussed, joy, 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.920 and sadness. Those are the six basic emotions that an 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:48.880 anthropologist named Paul Ekman identified in the nineteen seventies. Right, yeah, 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.120 you see that's sick. Um, and uh, you know we're 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.880 talking about fear right now, but you could make the 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:57.920 this is the this is the case for all of 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.560 at least those basic, if not all, the emotions that 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.360 a human can experience. Is that their motivators. They're saying 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:08.400 there's something in going on with you, specifically right now 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.400 in your environment or in your life, and a kind 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.959 of a medicine or both. Right yeah, Um, with fear, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:19.000 it's normally something's in your environment. Yeah, and it's clearly 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:23.640 a motivator to survive. Right. So um, let's say that, Um, 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:29.080 you're you're a caveman. Okay, So I'm back on the 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:34.440 couch with my bigger and um, you're sitting there, Uh 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.000 you see a snake. You just don't don't have a 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:38.880 very good feeling about it, so you don't go up 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.560 and touch it. But your friend Erg sitting next to you, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.800 is like, well what is this? And Erg gets bit 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.560 and dies a horrible nasty death right in front of 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:54.760 your eyes. What happened to tuktok? Know you're tuktok Okay, 0:14:55.280 --> 0:15:01.640 so um, you tuktok have just formed possibly the fear memory, uh, 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:06.000 in response to snakes. You are doing a very crude 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.520 interpretation of natural selection and evolution. You are going to 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.840 be able to go mate, and mayhaps that fear memory 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.040 will somehow epigenetically be passed on to your offspring and 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:23.200 then it's a trait eventually. Yes, So, um, fear is 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:28.240 a survival based motivator, right, Yeah, And Caveman is an 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.120 apt description because if you feared the right things back 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.280 in the day, like snakes and tigers and lightning, then 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.880 you had a good chance of surviving and procreating, and 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.520 all of a sudden you had a stronger, uh, smarter, 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:46.120 wiser population exactly. But all those is going on, you know, 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.880 long long, long ago, and a lot of people argue 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.360 long before we were humans, but you know, back when 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.120 we were still prey to snakes like primates, that's still 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.480 stuck around and that's probably where they first started. But um, 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.800 we didn't have any idea that this was evolution at work. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.280 And it wasn't until like the late nineteenth century that 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.960 Darwin really kind of got the attention of the world 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.200 and said, hey, these are inherent traits that are passed 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.920 down like fear is not something that's necessarily learned. It's 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:20.760 something we have instinctively. And he conducted this pretty cool 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.440 little experiment that he wrote about in um his book 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.240 The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, which 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.920 is published in eighteen seventy two, And he went to 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.200 the zoo right well, yeah, he was um specifically there. 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.040 The debate at the time was about the face of 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:39.280 fear the Edward monk, like, holy crap, face that everyone 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.600 gets when they're scared. You took it as being scared. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.880 I thought that was a scream of joy, the face 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:50.080 of fear, Yeah, our monk. Oh really, I thought he 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.320 was like I just got the best deal on this muffler. 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.240 It looked more to me like home alone. Oh my gosh. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.000 Oh no, that was joy. Though at the time he 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.000 was glad his parents were gone. Right, No, no no, he was. 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.480 He couldn't believe it. That was I think surprised, and 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.280 then later joy and then later sadness. Yeah, when he 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.760 learned what we all know eventually, the family is important, 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.679 and don't fear the creepy old man in your neighborhood. 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.880 Actually you probably should, probably should. I think Chris Colemus 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.120 did a great disservice to children by by making that 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.520 a moral Alright, So yeah, I always interpreted monks because 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:27.320 it was called the scream as as terror, regardless that 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.920 face we all make when we're scared, you know, out 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.560 of our pants. Uh. He went and Darwin went and 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.600 stood in front of a clear uh PLEXI I guess 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.200 it was quite glass at the time, I would think 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:44.359 it was, and had a puff adder jump, you know, 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.879 leaped towards his face. Even though he knew he was protected, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.720 he still reacted with that fear face and jumped back. 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:52.840 And he said basically that, uh, my will and reason 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.120 were powerless against the imagination of danger, even though he's 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.199 never experienced it. So like I've never been bitten by 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:01.760 a snake, but or actually they said that people that 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:08.439 have never even Yeah, So he came to this conclusion 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.520 that that fear and you know, likely all of our 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:17.200 basic emotions are very much passed down through the generations, right, 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.760 And uh, he came to that conclusion because he couldn't 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.680 control himself when the snake, which you'd never been bitten by, 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.200 um lunged at the glass which was safely in between them. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.399 He still couldn't control it. So he concluded, Yeah, there's 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.520 there's a lot more going onto this than you know. 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:37.760 This is something I've learned because why would I be 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.720 afraid of a snake? And I know rationally that there's 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.920 glass there, So that this stuff is so ancient. Are 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.480 modern trappings of civilization e g. A glass and a 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.000 zoo can't subdue it? Yeah? Yeah, the same at baseball 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.560 games when Pete they fouled the ball back and they know, 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.119 you know, there's a screen right in front of you, 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:57.920 and you will never get hit by a baseball, but 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.560 people still jump back and that bay maybe more that 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:06.040 may be less fear and more just an autonomic reaction 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:09.800 to something coming at you. That was Darwin's point. Really, Yeah, 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.000 it's the same thing. Yeah, because if we didn't experience fear, 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.640 like a baseball coming out would be like and then boom. Yeah, 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.280 same same with anything that we we moved to get 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.280 away from. You always feel like a goober too at 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.640 the game when that happens. Well, that's a that's a 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:31.320 higher um emotion that supposedly are specific to humans and 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.359 a couple of other higher primates, which is embarrassment that 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.800 only exists in relation to other people. Right, I don't 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:40.880 think I said the word goober in like a decade. 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:42.640 It's a good one, just flew out of my mouth. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.119 I love goober's. I've said, can I have another goober? 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.800 But what was that? The peanut and chopped Yeah? Um, 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:54.720 so Chuck Darwin basically said, I'm right, you're wrong, you're idiots. 0:19:55.640 --> 0:20:00.159 Um and uh. Fear is now seen as a a 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.560 basic emotional response, that's an inherited one. Yeah. And it's 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.639 the same as it was in the caveman days, except 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.080 it's not lines and tigers now it's people breaking into 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.080 your house, home invasion, terrorist attack. Well put um. And 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.359 then there's another point that Darwin made. I don't know 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:19.520 if he hammered at home, but um, we can anticipate things, right, 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:26.280 Like we don't have to see a snake by erg 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:29.439 to be afraid of a specific snake, right or have 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:34.520 it experienced right or um? And it doesn't go away 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.240 with each snake, like each new snake doesn't necessarily not 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:43.320 represent a new threat. Snakes in general do right. Um. 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.439 And that's because we can anticipate things right. That's another 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.960 survival mode that um, that fear triggers or that I 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.920 guess the centered around fear. We can anticipate being afraid, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.800 and apparently studies have shown that we can become physiologically 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:03.040 and psychologically just does afraid when we anticipate being afraid 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.360 of something, then when we're actually confronted with that thing 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.080 we're afraid of. Yeah, well, which is like a fear 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.000 of flying would be a perfect example of that, Yes, 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.920 it would. You can be just as scared, probably as 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.120 if you have actually been in a plane crash, if 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.480 you have a really really intense phobia flying, dude, I 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.919 can tell you that even if you've ever been on 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:25.080 a even a remotely scary flight, you can very much 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:30.359 be afraid anticipatoryally of a plane crash. It's very scary. 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:32.200 You've gotten pretty good though, right, dude. I am great. 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.720 I slept through the last takeoff I was on. Really 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.760 I could not believe it. You mean, was like, who 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:42.000 are you checking your bolts? Yeah? Yeah, and nothing. I 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.320 was on no scotch, no pills, no nothing. You weren't 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.240 on scotch, no scotch. Well that's called fear extinction, and 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.840 we'll get to that. Yeah, more foreshadowing other precursor. That 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:56.520 was very anticipatory. So speaking of conditioning, which we were not. 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.880 Let's talk about a very cruel experiment in the night 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.920 twenties by Mr John Watson Little Albert. Little Albert was 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:08.480 an eleven month old baby. I think they call Albert 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.879 a toddler. They call him an infant, and that's a 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:16.240 baby starting to toddle, just starting the title, So a 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.639 little Albert. They wanted to teach Albert fear of white rats. 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:21.720 The problem was, I guess it wouldn't have problem is 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:23.879 probably pretty good for the sake of the experiment, was 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.480 that he loved white rats, and when the white rats 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.160 would come around, little Albert would even reach for them, 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.600 and guests try to pet them, and until they started 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.440 playing this loud booming noise. No you know what they did. 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:38.000 They took a claw hammer and a piece of metal 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.760 and burned it right behind his head every time he 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.800 went to go. That was the loud booming noise. So uh, 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.320 it didn't take long before Albert was crying and moving 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:49.679 away from the white rats as expected. And not just 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:56.000 white rats, chuck rabbits, really for coats, cotton balls. They 0:22:56.200 --> 0:23:01.200 showed that fear isn't just think that we in hear it. 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:06.800 It can be conditioned, and little Albert became sick fried Fishbocker. 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.399 Here's the worst part. You ready for it. That's not true, 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:12.080 you're ready. Well, no one knows who little Albert is. Well, 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.960 he wasn't sick freed Fishbocker. Well you so, John Watson 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:21.159