How Useful Is Fear?
Evolution has installed phobias in humans that are proving hard to shake.
Franklin D. Roosevelt no doubt meant to be soothing when he insisted, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” A quick and terrifying tour through the academic literature on fear, though, reveals just how much heavy lifting that only was doing.
Our fears run broad and deep, and are every bit as diverse as we are. The 2017 version
