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.

