Wielding Fear

The primordial emotion is apt to run amok. But harnessing it can lead to responsible behavior and sound thinking.

Written byBob Grant

| 3 min read

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Fear is in the air. People everywhere have been navigating a potentially deadly new reality, living for months under the weight of a seemingly relentless pandemic. Economies, hobbled by the severe disruption to business as usual, struggle to regain a foothold, and many livelihoods hang in the balance. In addition, a US presidential election, arguably the most contentious in modern history, looms on the horizon, and some politicians are capitalizing on the fear-filled climate to achieve their personal, policy, and electoral goals.

This month’s Reading Frames essay, from University of California, Los Angeles, animal behavior researcher Daniel Blumstein, discusses the ecological power and evolutionary history of fear. The emotion has for millennia helped species avoid being eaten, and a balanced approach to risk-benefit analysis has helped some individuals prosper and multiply while others succumbed to starvation or predation due to an over- or under-abundance of caution, ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
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From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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