Nothing to fear?
Dr Elaine Fox, Professor of Experimental Psychology, and one of Univ’s newest Special Supernumerary Fellows features in the BBC World Service鈥檚 latest instalment of聽The Why Factor.
In the episode 鈥� entitled聽Fear VS Facts 鈥�聽presenter Mike Williams asks if we now live in a post-factual age 鈥� where messages of fear dominate and the truth goes unspoken or unheard. He investigates the 鈥淏ackfire Effect鈥� which means that entrenched views can become more entrenched 鈥� when confronted by contradictory facts. Politicians are often accused of distorting the truth with Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump the latest.
Dr Fox comments: 鈥淔ear is a very powerful emotion 鈥� I guess the first thing to remember is the reason all of us are here is because our ancestors had very effective threat detective systems鈥︹��
Listen to the show in its entirety聽.
Published: 8 August 2016
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