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Is Fear Near, Anger Far?

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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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Is Fear Near, Anger Far?

Robin Hanson
May 23, 2010
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Is Fear Near, Anger Far?

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Fear may contribute to the ideal of informed voting by enhancing detailed processing (Tiedens & Linton, 2001), whereas anger may detract from this ideal by promoting less careful processing and reliance on heuristics (Bodenhausen, Sheppard, & Kramer, 1994). Consistent with this possibility, work in political science (e.g., Marcus, Neuman, & MacKuen, 2000; Valentino et al., 2008) suggests that anxiety (fear) motivates citizens to learn, which may lead them to become better informed voters. … We … test[ed] the prediction that fear would lead participants to use specific issue-based information when choosing a candidate, whereas anger would lead participants to rely on general criteria (e.g., party loyalty). (more; HT Barker)

Yet fear of (thinking about) death seems quite effective at preventing critical thinking. Is fear of death different?

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Is Fear Near, Anger Far?

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Is Fear Near, Anger Far?

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chy12
May 15

For that reason plenty of superstars bring Replicas LV purses, as an example Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson and the like sometimes one tend not to genuinely notice the superstar though the Gucci these folks wear the ensemble.? 

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Marc Geddes
May 15

Exactly so. People are far too vague when talking about emotions, we need to be careful to specify exactly what emotion is being talked about and in exactly which specific context.

For instance is it likely that people are actually angry at politicians they've never personally interacted with? Not really, because anger is fleeting, and triggered by specific context. It's more likely to be *contempt*, which is a different quite distinct emotion.

As for death, it's an abtraction. In so far as you're thinking about it in the abstract, fear is not the emotion you're feeling, because fear is generated by specific causes of death, not death itself. Also fear is social emotion, thought of death the abstraction produces a distinct *intellectual* emotion, not a social one. I'd say its existential *angst*.

You'll never learn all this at Sing Inst's Griffidor school. To learn about conscious experiences, readers must join my rival Slytherin school. To learn the dark arts, you must join Slytherin ;)

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