Showing posts with label Fear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fear. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 03, 2026

The problem with being on time is that nobody is there to appreciate it

Try to imagine a life without timekeeping.
You probably can’t. 
You know the month, the year, the day of the week. 
There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. 
You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. 
Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. 
Birds are not late. 
A dog does not check its watch. 
Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. 
Man alone measures time. 
Man alone chimes the hour. 
And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. 
A fear of time running out.

- Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Monday, April 02, 2018

You Have One New Follower

The fear of chaos can invite more chaos. If you’re afraid of being mugged while walking down the street, you will become very cautious. As you become cautious, you become a target, therefore you are inviting the very thing that you’re afraid of.


Thursday, March 01, 2018

Don’t Wrestle your Fears into Submission

 
Life Gets Better Together


 
 
It’s very hard to be proud of your sexuality when it hasn’t brought you any joy. Once it’s associated with joy and love it’s easy to be proud of who you are. The first time you actually believe somebody loves you it’s a wonderful moment in your life ~ George Michael
                                                                 
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Fear Conditioning

One form of learning that plays a prominent role in consumer’s behaviour is fear conditioning.

In Watson and Rayner’s seminal experiment with “Little Albert” (1920), they showed how fear can become a conditioned emotional reaction. Marketers may also be incorporating some of Watson and Rayner’s behavioural theories to influence their consumer’s behaviour.

People often learn by information and instruction which situations to fear (Rachman, 1977). Mowrer (1939) argued that fear “may effectively motivate human beings” and that the curtailment of fear “may serve powerfully to reinforce behaviour that brings about such a state of relief or security”.

Accordingly, companies that market their products often use forms of fear conditioning in an attempt to increase their revenue.

Clearasil, a skin care product for the treatment of acne, ran television advertisements portraying spotty teenagers looking glum and downbeat; but joyful and surrounded by attractive women once the product had been discovered. Similar advertising themes exist with Lynx body spray. The product is advertised as a potent solution for men to acquire more attention from women, a “spray more - get more” mantra of fear conditioning.  

Both advertisements suggest an attempt at fear conditioning to promote their product to possibly insecure adolescent males. The fear can be conditioned by frequent repetition of the association between the new conditioned stimulus and the fear. Therefore, individuals (consumers) are driven to purchase these products in an attempt to avoid negative outcomes and successfully reduce their fear (Rachman, 1977). It can be further argued that avoidance conditioning is employed in these advertisements; as the consumer learns a response (buy product) and thus avoid an aversive stimulus (e.g. not being attractive).
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"...because then you're watching television, you're watching the news, you're being pumped full of fear, there's floods, there's AIDS, there's murder, cut to commercial, buy the Acura, buy the Colgate, if you have bad breath they're not going to talk to you, if you have pimples, the girl's not going to fuck you, and it's just this campaign of fear, and consumption, and that's what I think it's all based on, the whole idea of keep everyone afraid, and they'll consume." ~ Marilyn Manson (Bowling for Columbine, 2002).