Overview

Uncover the scientific, historical, and sociological dimensions of fear as you explore the ways humans experience the world and how fear can be both a positive and a negative force in our lives.

If you listed your emotions from your most favorite to your least, chances are that fear would not be among the favorites. And yet, if we ordered our emotions according to their importance for our survival, fear would certainly be at the top. Without fear, we simply wouldn’t be here. Fear is a strong emotion that can hold us back, move us forward, and bind us to others in our group. But what exactly is it?

In Understanding and Overcoming Fear, sociologist Margee Kerr, PhD, explains the physiological and contextual aspects of fear, revealing the complexities of this powerful emotion and explaining why you can never experience the exact same fear twice. In 24 episodes, illustrated with fascinating video and graphics, Professor Kerr takes you on a journey similar to the one she has taken in her own work—from considering fear as a toxic, destructive force that needs to be defeated to an emotion with tremendous upsides in the right circumstances.

You’ll learn about American fears, phobias, and the treatments for both. You’ll discover effective ways to manage and overcome fears and how to build a better, healthier relationship with fear so that it does what it is designed to do—help us stay alive.

Course Outline

01: What Is Fear?

Discover the biological aspects of fear shared by all humans in our central and peripheral nervous systems.

Duration: 28 min

02: Why Do People Want to Be Scared?

Explore the factors that affect how we interpret the feeling of “fun-scary” and what brainwave activity reveals about the experience.

Duration: 32 min

03: How We Sense Fear

Examine how the modern theory of constructed emotion explains fear and why you will never experience the exact same fear twice.

Duration: 30 min

04: Understanding Specific Phobias

Explore the many subtypes of phobias, how they affect mental and physical health, and the most effective treatments.

Duration: 33 min

05: How We Learn to Fear

Investigate how our sense of the world is generated in our minds and what happens when our predicted world and the real world don’t match up.

Duration: 29 min

06: Why We Feel Afraid: The Science of Emotion

Learn about the body’s predictive systems and what happens when we choose to confront fear-inducing situations.

Duration: 29 min

07: The Function and Meaning of the Scary Story

Discover how scary stories help us make sense of the unknown and transmit cultural warnings about our biggest threats.

Duration: 27 min

08: Monster as Metaphor

Explore how monsters in literature and entertainment reflect societal fears and warn of the destruction that can come from crossing boundaries.

Duration: 29 min

09: Fear of Criminal and Deviant Behavior

Understand how we decide which people, places, and things threaten us and how labeling deviant behavior helps maintain societal norms.

Duration: 29 min

10: Fear of Confinement

Examine why we fear total institutions and how they play a role in our scary stories and societal fears.

Duration: 31 min

11: Fear of Crowds

Discover the dynamics of crowd behavior and whether panic tends to be the cause or result of a disaster.

Duration: 30 min

12: Facing Fears as a Nation

Learn about historical national fears and how the experiences of military personnel have influenced our understanding of fear.

Duration: 27 min

13: Fears for Our Kids

Explore how parenting attitudes about fear have evolved and what research reveals about the fears and anxieties of children today.

Duration: 27 min

14: How Avoiding Risk Can Increase Fear

Investigate why people feel their families are at greater risk of violent harm despite statistical evidence to the contrary.

Duration: 28 min

15: Fear of Cybercrime

Learn about the legal mechanisms in place to curb vulnerabilities to cybercrime and what experts say we need to do to calm those fears.

Duration: 29 min

16: Fear of Pandemics

Explore the use of language during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether calming language could have quelled public fear.

Duration: 28 min

17: Fear of Climate Change

Examine the widespread fears about climate change and the “eco-anxiety” that mental health professionals are treating.

Duration: 30 min

18: Fear of Corrupt Government Officials

Explore how broken trust can lead to fear, using historical examples to illustrate the relationship between corruption and public anxiety.

Duration: 28 min

19: Fear of the Supernatural

Investigate the rise of belief and fear in the supernatural and what causes people to feel they have experienced otherworldly encounters.

Duration: 29 min

20: How Society Shapes Our Fears of Death and Dying

Explore how societal shifts have changed our familiarity with death and its consequences on our fear of mortality.

Duration: 27 min

21: Confronting Our Own Mortality

Discover how awareness of our mortality can be channeled into actions that lead to a more fulfilling life.

Duration: 27 min

22: Understanding Trauma and Fear

Examine the factors that influence our responses to traumatic experiences and how they shape our fears.

Duration: 28 min

23: Managing Fear with Mindfulness

Explore how interoceptive awareness can affect our responses to trauma and the possibility of posttraumatic growth.

Duration: 28 min

24: Using Fear to Fight Fear

Learn about social anxiety disorder and discover how “fun-scary” therapy could be beneficial in overcoming fear.