Fear Knot (1871)

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Why do we fear Halloween candy but not vending machines? Why do "witch hunts" recur so often in history? How dangerous are serial killers, really? The Fear Knot examines our most common deeply held fears, unpacking which are valid and which are misguided, explaining the history of how our irrational fears developed, and how we can unlearn them. We live in a world seemingly rife with danger, a villainous stranger or new deadly bacteria lurking around every corner. So how do we sort through these fears, determining which are well-founded and which have been manufactured? How can our biases and psychology allow these fears to overtake us, and how can we learn to think logically in a world driven by sensationalism? In this lively and timely tour, psychologist Natashia Swalve and journalism professor Ruth DeFoster lead readers through the history and psychology behind our most visible and sensational cultural fears, beginning with the most personal—fear within our