tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/fear-in-children-28766/articlesFear in children – The Conversation2017-08-31T12:38:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/832132017-08-31T12:38:58Z2017-08-31T12:38:58ZFeel the fear and do it anyway: why being scared can be good for you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184188/original/file-20170831-22597-1senold.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/extreme-sportsman-jumps-on-rope-great-649452289">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I was ten, my Uncle Chris took me on the ghost train at the fair. I had looked forward to that trip so much; as an imaginative child I devoured ghost stories, and wondered if night terrors were manifestations trying to claw their way over from the other side.</p>
<p>But how disappointed I was. The train was just a jerky little carriage that bumped along on rails, a few pre-recorded shrieks, some luminescent paint, a frond of wet material that was probably a used mop, and at some point, a man in black jumping out shouting “BWAAAH!”</p>
<p>I wasn’t scared then, and I’m not sure I’ve been frightened of anything much since. So last week when I went to see a performance of <a href="https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/seance">Séance</a> at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, described as “an intense sonic performance for 20 people that lasts for 15 terrifying minutes”, I was looking forward to a proper spooking.</p>
<h2>Is there anybody out there?</h2>
<p>Sadly, it wasn’t even as good as the ghost train I went on many years ago, although there were similarities. With a group of 19 other people, I sat in a pitch-black shipping container for a quarter of an hour with some suspiciously clammy headphones emitting <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/binaural-broadcasting">binaural</a> sounds and voices that described a séance going wrong.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184190/original/file-20170831-7053-15za0po.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Fringe performance of Séance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Summerhall</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Disastrous séances have been done to death over the last few hundred years. The only novelty here was the pitch blackness and the sound effects, but the script wasn’t strong enough to overcome the limitation that we all knew: that whatever happened, we were perfectly safe.</p>
<p>But not that much happened. Things weren’t helped by my being at the end of a row so that I knew the voices from my left could only be coming from the headphones, not some spectre passing overhead. It was all a bit of a let-down; not one delicious shiver of fear passed through my body.</p>
<p>Fear is our response to threat and danger. It makes us choose between staying and freezing or fighting, or – often more wisely – fleeing as quickly as possible. Fear is one of the few basic emotions that is probably innate, and that is exhibited by many other creatures. An animal that can quickly flee danger will stand a good chance of surviving long enough to add to the gene pool.</p>
<h2>Poor little Albert</h2>
<p>The biological changes in an organism in response to a threat conserve energy so that we can flee faster or fight better, and include sweating, dilation of the central blood vessels and increased muscle tension.</p>
<p>There’s a large cognitive component to fear, in that we learn to be afraid of particular stimuli, and learn to evaluate them in particular ways. The classic example is psychologist John B Watson’s induction of fear in the infant <a href="https://psychologized.org/the-little-albert-experiment/">Little Albert</a> by pairing the appearance of a white rat to sudden unpleasant loud sounds.</p>
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<p>The poor child showed what is called <a href="https://www.verywell.com/what-is-stimulus-generalization-2795885">stimulus generalisation</a> in also being frightened of other white animals and even fluffy material. It is thought that we acquire phobias, which are inappropriate fear responses, by the same process of classical conditioning that gave Albert his fear of white rabbits.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-amygdala-definition-role-function.html">amygdala</a>, a pair of small almond-shaped nuclei deep in each hemisphere of the brain, play an essential role in detecting threat, which then leads to the generation of the fear response. Damage to the amygdala in monkeys and humans leads to a complex syndrome of behaviours known as <a href="https://patient.info/doctor/kluver-bucy-syndrome">Klüver-Bucy Syndrome</a>, including extreme docility and inapparent ability to detect threatening stimuli. The animal can no longer be afraid of frightening things. There is some <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00348/full">evidence</a> that psychopaths have smaller, malformed amygdala, which makes sense given their reduced levels of fear.</p>
<p>But, alas, I am no psychopath, and there are many situations in which I can imagine feeling plenty of fear. The prospect of going over the top in the First World War trenches is terrifying, or being in the boats approaching the Normandy shore as depicted in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. The idea of being in a plane as it plummets to earth has a similar effect.</p>
<p>Yet in everyday life I don’t think I feel fear very often. I struggle, in fact, to understand what real fear must be like. I can envisage what it must have been like being in the trenches, and I can <em>imagine</em> the fear, but I can’t make myself <em>feel</em> the fear.</p>
<h2>Is modern life too safe?</h2>
<p>Most of what people think of as fear is just the knowledge that something unexpected is going to happen, such as when we watch horror films; we aren’t truly frightened. Few of us feel any real fear in such a situation. Indeed much of modern life is now fear-free. This basic animal emotion is just not something most of us experience very often. </p>
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<span class="caption">In the absence of everyday experiences of fear, some people enjoy taking extra risks just for kicks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/315925073?size=huge_jpg&src=lb-59856941&sort=newestFirst&offset=1">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Although more pleasant, our lives are a little impoverished. If we hardly ever experience fear, we are less able, perhaps, to empathise with others who are in truly frightening situations. A chastening near-miss while driving can make us afraid, and might make us safer drivers, if only for a while. But humans often take too many risks, which in part is because our modern lives provide us with too few frightening scenarios.</p>
<p>If not enough fear is a danger of modern Western life, too much fear is worse. Prolonged exposure to fearful stimuli leads to stress, which is very bad for us. It elevates levels of the “stress hormone” <a href="http://www.hormone.org/hormones-and-health/hormones/cortisol">cortisol</a>, which in excess leads to system-wide inflammation, immune system suppression, mental illness, and even cell death. Too much fear can also result in <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Post-traumatic-stress-disorder/Pages/Introduction.aspx">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> (PTSD), which can lead to serious mental health problems.</p>
<p>Perhaps I would have felt some fear at the performance of Séance if I had believed that there was a chance that the container door would jam shut and the oxygen might run out. Or the container had been perched on the top of a cliff, and once inside it had started sliding towards the edge. But no. It just sat there on a noisy Edinburgh street. I will have to seek my thrills elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Trevor Harley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Modern life has removed real fear as an experience for most of us. But this basic animal emotion is crucial to the human experienceTrevor Harley, Head and Dean of School of Psychology, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/759792017-05-19T01:01:13Z2017-05-19T01:01:13ZChild anxiety and parenting in the Trump era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170007/original/file-20170518-12263-1jigwfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What can parents do to help their children manage the political climate?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Richard Vogel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Lucy,” a shy, intelligent six-year-old, missed three days of school because she had stomachaches. The symptoms started the day after Lucy witnessed a loud argument while waiting for the bus with her babysitter. A “scary man” shouted at people waiting: “Watch out, you’re all going to be deported now!” Lucy didn’t know what “deported” meant, but she knew it was very bad. People told the man to leave and shouted insults at him that Lucy didn’t understand. The man finally left, shaking his fist and threatening “police action.” Lucy held her babysitter’s hand, looked up and noticed tears in her sitter’s eyes. Lucy’s stomach started to rumble. Sadly, cases like Lucy’s are becoming increasingly common.</p>
<p>I’m a child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with expertise in anxiety disorders. Since November’s election and the general political upheaval that accompanied it, medical professionals across the country have observed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/25/donald-trump-immigration-deportation-children-doctors">an uptick in agitation and anxiety</a> among our young patients.</p>
<p>What do we know about how anxiety develops in children? And what can parents do to reduce it?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170033/original/file-20170518-12257-fhprh6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Children can get swept up in the heat of political rhetoric.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Julie Jacobson</span></span>
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<h2>Kids take on the grown-ups’ anxiety</h2>
<p>Strong <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/social-psychology/emotional-contagion?format=PB&isbn=9780521449489#pAfM0TVKhJatR00Z.97">emotions are contagious</a> – particularly anxiety. And while anxiety spreads easily among us all, children are the most vulnerable. Elementary school children lack a fully developed ability to solve problems on their own, making it difficult for them to separate other people’s worries (especially adults’) from their own frightening fantasies.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, although kids tend to take on their parents’ worries, it can be hard for parents to control anxiety – even in normal times. But these are not normal times: Politicians, the media and ordinary citizens on both sides are hurling heated rhetoric across the aisle, all of which <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/02/why-america-is-so-stressed-out-politics-politics-politics.html">is fueling anxiety</a>.</p>
<p>When upset enough, people can start to think and behave in less rational, more primitive ways. Mental health professionals call this “<a href="http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-freud-lectures.htm">regression</a>”: when people go from adult, rational behavior to a more emotionally charged, less reasoned way of thinking and acting. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170018/original/file-20170518-12231-1b4j7yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Public displays of politically charged rhetoric seem to be everywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Paul Sakuma</span></span>
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<p>These days, I’ve personally observed this sort of overly emotional, regressive behavior more and more frequently – often in public places, like on the subway, where people seem more ready than in recent memory to dispense insults.</p>
<p>As a child psychiatrist, I’m concerned when I see emotionally charged language routinely expressed in public discourse, often in the form of intolerance toward those with differing political beliefs or divergent racial/ethnic/sexual orientation backgrounds.</p>
<p>Times of emotional upheaval (and the regressive behavior that accompanies it) can effectively <a href="https://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/children/childhood-anxiety-disorders">terrorize children</a>, causing them to become traumatized, highly anxious or have difficulty sleeping, eating or focusing in school.</p>
<h2>Developmental factors in processing anxiety</h2>
<p>Before third or fourth grade, children haven’t yet formed the rational, organized thought processes that developmental psychologist <a href="http://www.piaget.org/aboutPiaget.html">Jean Piaget</a> called “<a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html">concrete operations</a>.” Before reaching this stage of cognitive development, children don’t rely on cause and effect. Rather, magical (nonrational) explanations predominate. Noises in the middle of the night are as likely to come from monsters as heating pipes. The school bus is as likely to appear because they blinked and wished it as because it has a schedule. Conflicts unambiguously feature “good guys” and “bad guys.”</p>
<p>Anxious fantasies can feel as real as the everyday world. For Lucy, who experienced her worries as physical symptoms (stomachaches and even vomiting the next time she got on the bus), it required patience and attention to translate her symptoms back to language so she could feel more in control.</p>
<p>In general, adults rely on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616730500245906">a routine ability</a> to read their own emotions and those of others. These skills are newly developed in young children and can collapse in scary situations or in the face of parental upheaval. When children become anxious enough, this collapse can <a href="http://www.mbtchild.com/">spiral</a> into an impaired ability to understand the world and a growing sense of isolation.</p>
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<span class="caption">Parent anxiety can turn into child anxiety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-child-hug-637550848?src=-Tf7QGqes-d9uK_b0J1Fxw-1-75">Tofe Allen / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<h2>What can parents do?</h2>
<p>How can parents navigate this <a href="http://time.com/4353606/anger-america-enough-already/">flood tide of personal and community upset</a> and raise relatively healthy kids? Parents always have a hard job, but I’ve seen the aggressive political climate complicate the ever-daunting task of raising children. Parents want to remain truthful to children to underscore trust, while also gauging what children can tolerate hearing without becoming overwhelmed. This can get more difficult when parents feel overwhelmed themselves.</p>
<p>Parents should reflect and reinforce their own values. Lucy’s parents couldn’t pretend that her bus stop incident didn’t happen, didn’t matter or wasn’t frightening. They needed to acknowledge how frightened she felt, while <a href="http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2016/11/10/parents-talk-to-kids-trump-anxiety">reassuring her</a> that school had not become dangerous.</p>
<p>What parents tell children is important, but <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207284.1966.11642910">how parents act is also a crucial guide for kids</a>. In today’s political climate, it’s more important than ever for parents to be good role models. That means that values like kindness, patience, respect for others, taking turns and sharing should be developed early and demonstrated often.</p>
<p>Listening to others is crucial, even when we’re angry. Bullying, violence and name-calling are behaviors that parents should take care not to model for their children. (One survey of 2,000 K-12 teachers suggested an <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20160413/trump-effect-impact-presidential-campaign-our-nations-schools">increase in school bullying</a> during the 2016 election.)</p>
<p>Parents’ roles are more important now than ever. How parents respond in these challenging times can shape <a href="https://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/children-and-teens/tips-parents-and-caregivers/help-your-child-manage-traumatic-">a child’s ability to grow normally or become traumatized</a>. How they channel anxiety and rage makes a difference.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the significant impact parents have on their children’s mental health and well-being may, in turn, be crucial to maintaining a rational society. In my view, this is the small, partial contribution that parents can make to this country’s current upheaval.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170010/original/file-20170518-12266-1j3ti73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even young kids are participating in the public discourse. What can parents do when things get heated?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Elaine Thompson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Milrod receives funding from The Clinical Translational Science Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and a Fund in the New York Community Trust established by DeWitt Wallace. Previously funded by two grants at the National Institute of Mental Health and the Brain and Behavior Foundation (NARSAD)
</span></em></p>With emotionally charged rhetoric from both sides of the aisle and many parents in a heightened state of distress, children are more vulnerable than ever to anxiety. What can parents do?Barbara Milrod, Professor of Psychiatry, Medical College, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/574722016-06-27T01:31:28Z2016-06-27T01:31:28ZHow do children learn to detect snakes, spiders and other dangerous things?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128099/original/image-20160624-28362-1wzt9bj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How do kids develop fears?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/59733540@N00/151133370/in/photolist-emAFL-4ej2SY-5TnRw3-cKiDfE-4zQNML-3HcxGw-s4PkgV-cNBf8W-bQdgSV-CqJyt-8b9gRs-5TwvyE-dUD3ty-qwL6e-ecgtJK-nqS1wX-dyBYmi-bZSg5f-9bVz1q-odkuJL-8xAufS-hKzXkJ-58TVG6-727qfi-auyiBx-4kLVEW-kSzwP-68RhWS-4LAh4w-nHjqS9-oas4yh-rokjrW-tEsAP-k9RcPN-nH9Yg9-3UN759-pJWfht-bzqa5p-rCHrXt-8SxTyh-bZS8Yd-exhg4K-3KNXMy-sqFhRh-9bVzRs-aKUcW-4VhoCZ-avkRuq-9hdCaX-5fDZGL">Craig Bradshaw</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Outdoor activities are a fun and exciting part of summertime for children, but they can also be filled with natural (and unnatural) dangers, like fast-moving cars, steep cliffs, crashing waves and even the occasional bear. </p>
<p>Despite these daily hazards, most kids make it to the end of the day unscathed, other than the occasional scraped knee. </p>
<p>Research shows children have an ability to detect threat quickly. How are perceptions of what’s safe and what’s threatening in the outside world shaped from an early age? </p>
<h2>Detecting natural threats</h2>
<p>Because detecting threat would have been advantageous for human survival, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rev/108/3/483/">researchers</a> have theorized that humans have a predisposition to detect certain kinds of natural threats very quickly. These threats would consist of things like snakes and spiders, or animals that would have threatened the reproduction of our ancient human ancestors.</p>
<p>Consistent with this theory, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2001-18060-008">psychologists</a> have found that when presented with photographs of threatening images like snakes and spiders and nonthreatening images like flowers and mushrooms, adults are quicker to identify the threatening than the nonthreatening images.</p>
<p>In my own lab, we study how children and babies – who lack significant experience with snakes and spiders – respond to these creepy-crawlies. </p>
<p>In one study, we presented three-year-olds and adults with a series of nine pictures arranged in a 3-by-3 matrix on a touchscreen. One of the pictures was always the target, and the other eight were distractors. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128100/original/image-20160624-28391-jdoykq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children detect threatening things such as spiders more quickly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/78246099/in/photolist-7V2QF-3Bnsvn-6v7ieu-aBEwM4-aotxQH-ay2vzr-3BvmLe-ay2uTV-ay5cZb-ay5dto-ay5doj-ay2uPn-7xKTv-3BndDs-fvMKK-gwea3-6HDDUw-MM3sw-65vsvF-dpmz2C-h9APhr-ay2vfR-ay5dyN-ay5d3Y-ay5dqh-Vk7K6-aDkcHQ-3BnSNw-8cPU5R-3BwXKF-7gQKfR-8xXmvu-3BuSgx-3BmVbQ-fiVvHD-55PPag-ay2uLM-4phGWj-dv1aP-4MG8BZ-qtrqX9-nyvJuM-3YRviq-i2bKmn-oaE396-3BhUkp-3BvcTg-ds7vki-8Qf5Ub-6J1oL5">Anthony Easton</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the targets were <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/19/3/284.short">snakes</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.04.005">spiders</a>, children and adults were much faster at finding them than when the targets were flowers, mushrooms, frogs, caterpillars or even cockroaches. </p>
<p>We found <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20121878">similar results</a> when we tested babies using a simplified version of the task: After presenting 9- to 12-month-olds with two images at once – one snake and one flower – we found that the babies turned their heads more quickly to look at snakes than at flowers.</p>
<p>This finding extends to animals as well. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19450020">Research</a> from a lab in Japan reported that even monkeys detect snakes more quickly than flowers.</p>
<h2>Learning to detect threat</h2>
<p>At first blush, it seems as though my research supports the idea that humans have an evolved predisposition to detect natural threats very quickly.</p>
<p>However, further <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724980543000204#.V0-D1NdjsQY">research</a> has shown that adults quickly detect a variety of <em>unnatural</em> threats as well, threats like guns, needles and knives. </p>
<p>Since these man-made threats weren’t around when humans were evolving, the evolutionary theory can’t explain why we detect these things so quickly as well. The fact that we do suggests that rapid threat detection of dangerous objects can be learned.</p>
<p>Several lines of research support this idea. My own <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930802542308#.V0-EuNdjsQY">work</a> has shown that although preschool-aged children detect needles very quickly (more quickly than pens), they do not detect knives particularly quickly (when compared to spoons). </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128101/original/image-20160624-28362-1p1vyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Experience with injections makes children fearful of them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/proimos/7015509987/in/photolist-pNMach-pNKrfa-5xjoMv-bFWjGK-HvZmP-qLqacw-bx7cSV-38M6XA-kfeE3-38Gwpi-Lmg3i-7Y9UsD-7Yd9SG-ntC63y-7JDTp2-8HziQW-oJXSdL-6zJhW9-cnvUKS-p4Mqsi-HvZdk-bbntCM-gxaus-6hc9f2-9T9rNz-6VAPuu-p4Gxzt-psvwSt-p4FrMa-p4GwPv-4WyVY4">PROAlex Proimos</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Importantly, these results seem to be related to negative experience with the objects: While the children had a great deal of experience with inoculations, they were not allowed to handle knives at home and had never been cut by one. Thus, children might have learned to detect needles (but not knives) very quickly via the negative experience of an injection.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930801993973">research</a> with adults from another lab has shown that after being conditioned to associate the occurrence of an unpleasant electric shock with nonthreatening animals like dogs, birds or fish, the adults learned to detect these animals very quickly – just as quickly as they detected snakes and spiders.</p>
<p>Together, this research suggests that although learning might not be involved in the detection of snakes and spiders, humans can easily <em>learn</em> to detect a variety of threats very quickly as well – that is, after they learn that they are indeed threatening.</p>
<p>One final factor that leads us to detect threatening objects very quickly is emotion – either our emotional state, or our propensity to behave emotionally (as dictated by our personalities).</p>
<p>For example, in another study, I found that adults who <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/emo/14/4/701/">watched</a> a scary movie clip were faster to detect anything – even a very simple shape – faster than adults who watched a neutral clip. </p>
<p>Further, individuals who have a specific phobia <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2001-18060-008">detect</a> the object of that phobia faster than nonphobic adults. Similarly, both adults and children with social anxiety <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&uid=2006-23058-001">detect</a> social signals of threat (like an angry face) more quickly than their nonanxious counterparts.</p>
<h2>Human threat detectors</h2>
<p>This body of research demonstrates that humans can acquire a propensity to detect various kinds of threats through different mechanisms. An ability to detect natural threats like snakes and spiders is developed early. The detection of unnatural threats is learned through negative experience. Finally, we can detect any object (threatening or not) very quickly given a fearful or anxious state of mind. </p>
<p>Together, this flexibility in responding quickly to whatever happens to threaten us makes humans (even very young children) highly effective threat detectors. </p>
<p>This ability is important, as it gives us the freedom to explore potentially new and scary things, while at the same time alerting us when something in the environment might be worth keeping an eye on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa LoBue does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When 9- to 12-month-olds with presented with two images at once – one snake and one flower – researchers found that the babies turned their heads more quickly to look at snakes than at flowers.Vanessa LoBue, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.