27th August 2007

Our fears drive our behaviours

David Myers, Professor of Psychology is an expert on the psychology of fear.

Psychological science, Myers tells us, has identified four factors that drive up our perceptions of risk.

  1. We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear. Thats why we fear snakes and spiders.
  2. We fear what we cannot control. We feel more in control when we are driving a car than we do flying an airplane.
  3. We fear what is immediate. We are more concerned about the risks of taking off in a plane than the risk of dying from cancer.
  4. We fear threats readily available in memory. We easily recall the 9/11 images and they make us hesitant to fly. Our brains are not designed to easily recall the fact that, mile for mile, we are 37 times more likely to die in a passenger car than on a commercial flight.

No wonder our fears drive so many behaviors.

Popularity: 3% [?]

If you need advice on a specific marketing issue or staff training please ring me on +64 4 499 6770 or email me, or you can use our contact form. And if you loved this article, don't forget to subscribe to by Email or RSS feed

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Understanding Customer Behaviour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply