When you read the news, do you find yourself getting more afraid? Do you tend to read the headlines and articles that confirm your worst fears? Our brains are not set up to think critically in an environment of uncertainty, but there are ways to keep our rational brain in charge and think more clearly about the world around us… even during a crisis. I’m Dr. Jud Brewer, addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist specializing in anxiety and habit change. Let’s dive right in.
I surfed this past weekend in Rhode Island. I’m really lucky to get to surf even though the water is still really cold in New England. It’s great exercise, and I get to connect with my body and mind in a beautiful natural environment – all while maintaining a safe social distance from other surfers. But a friend saw a picture I posted on Facebook from my early morning session, and, concerned about my health, sent me an article from the LA Times that began:
“Kim Prather, a leading atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, wants to yell out her window at every surfer, runner, and biker she spots along the San Diego coast. “I wouldn’t go in the water if you paid me $1 million right now,” she said. The beach, in her estimation, is one of the most dangerous places to be these days, as the novel coronavirus marches silently across California.”
Wow. Serious stuff. The article went on to talk about raw sewage and how Prather fears that COVID-19 could enter coastal waters in similar ways and then spray this microscopic pathogen into the air putting surfers and beachgoers at risk. While that may be possible, it seemed strange to me for two reasons. First, things like salt are more likely to kill viruses, and second, just like if someone is smoking in the open air vs in your car, you’re much less likely to breathe in airborne pathogens such as aerosolized viral particles if you’re in the wide open air in the ocean as compared to in close quarters in the grocery store.
Long story short, I didn’t think much of it, and had a great morning surfing. But later I read that the reporter had completely taken Dr. Prather’s comments out of context to create an alarmist and misleading article. Dr. Prather posted on Facebook, “It is sad to me that the article was written in a way that invoked more fear in people. The reason I talk about science with the public is to alleviate fear–not spread it. Words in the article like “dangerous” and “fear” were used to describe how I supposedly felt-but these were not my words… I made it very clear that SARS-CoV-2 has not been detected in the ocean or atmosphere by anyone.”
I’m telling this story because of two things. One. Fear is in the air right now, and as I’ve talked about before, it’s contagious and can be easily and quickly spread around the world thanks to the internet. Two. When we’re primed or even biased toward fear, we’re more likely to be spooked. From an evolutionary standpoint, when you’re in an unfamiliar part of the savannah, it is really helpful to have your guard up, and to be ready to run at the first sign of danger. This helps you survive. Yet it is equally important that you are able to let go of that fear and calm your physiology down when you are out of danger. This is the difference between acute and chronic stress. Acute stress helps you run away from danger, so that you survive. Chronic stress, when you’re walking around, always treating everything as dangerous, ironically, is dangerous itself, as it makes you less healthy.
Let’s explore how fear can get set up in our brains to bias us toward seeing danger where there isn’t any. Our brains are set up to try to learn patterns of behavior as quickly as possible. This is what habits are all about. We learn how to walk, talk, eat and so on so that we can free up our brain to learn new things. This is a shortcut for behavior. Triggered by an environmental cue, we automatically act out a behavior. Yet, we learn to associate certain cues with danger for example, and if we don’t go back and check to see if there is actual danger, that bias sticks with us, so that cue can trigger a fear response that we habitually act out without there actually being any danger. This in turn, puts us on high alert and we’re more likely to see other things in the environment as dangerous. This becomes a vicious cycle: fear leads us to learn certain environmental cues as dangerous, which trigger more fear and so on. If this continues, to our brain, no part of the savannah is safe. Add in uncertainty which makes us feel unsafe, and fear can really take off.
So if you are in an uncertain environment, which we all are in right now, and perhaps a little afraid of catching the virus, and someone writes a fear-provoking article for the LA Times, your fear-biased brain is more likely to assume this is true, and take it for truth. This is also known as confirmation bias – you are more likely to believe information that supports your current beliefs than information that challenges it.
I’ll add one more thing here. Fear is cheap. By cheap, I mean because it is a basic survival mechanism, our brains are more likely to assume that whatever triggered our fear response is accurate rather than sit around and fact check. If you are about to get hit by a car, you jump out of the way first, and think later. So people can more easily manipulate our minds using fear than trying to evoke other emotional responses. If someone really wants us to read a news article, they might twist a few words to make it literally grab our attention more, especially if they want us to see things the way they do. Unfortunately, I see this more and more in journalism, where it’s hard to tell the difference between a news story and an editorial — especially if you only read the headlines.
Hafiz, a 14th-century Persian mystic and poet put it nicely. He wrote, “Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.”
So how can we avoid getting sucked into that black hole of fear, fed by uncertainty, especially if the news is telling us the world is unsafe? It is really important to be able to figure out what information is accurate and what smells a bit fishy. I’ve mentioned before the importance of grounding ourselves in the present moment, using short mindfulness practices, taking a deep breath, or doing a 5 finger breathing practice with our kids.
1) When you read a shocking headline, take a moment to notice the shock, do a practice to calm yourself down, and then take the time to check your own biases. Are you seeing the world through fear-colored glasses, or is there real danger here? Does the article actually match the attention-grabbing headline?
2) Check the source to see if it is credible. Even if it is a mainstream news outlet, remind yourself that reporters are people. They like anyone else, can be biased, and might not know it. That’s the nature of bias: we don’t see it because we are so used to it. Remind yourself that even if a reporter is quoting a scientist, this doesn’t mean that what they are writing is true. That’s why scientists publish peer-reviewed papers, so that we can check each other’s work and point out potential biases before the studies go to press. For COVID-19 the best news sources are the WHO and CDC.
3) Give feedback. As humans, we learn best by getting feedback. Dr. Prather contacted the reporter and pointed out how she had been taken out of context. She also reported this on Facebook so that others would take notice, and this was picked up by other outlets that helped bring this to light. Hopefully the reporter learned from this and will check her biases before writing future articles. If you see something that seems off, ask questions to see if you’ve missed something or if they have.
Let’s finish with a page from the book the boy the mole the fox and the horse.
“One of our greatest freedoms is how we react to things”
So see if today, you can notice your fear reactions, and see if you can open that freedom to respond to check to see if you have any biases so that you can respond appropriately and not inadvertently spread more fear.
Onward, together. See you tomorrow.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-02/coronavirus-ocean-swimming-surfing-safe-beaches-los-angeles
https://beachgrit.com/2020/04/fake-news-scripps-scientist-kim-wants-to-yell-out-her-window-at-every-surfer-prather-says-la-times-retaught-me-the-meaning-of-out-of-context/