What is the cause of fear?

Answer 1

The unknown

Answer 2

Fear is probably the oldest emotion from an evolutionary standpoint, and you can see how it would be helpful. Rational fear keeps you alive. If you weren't afraid of falling off a cliff, you'd be more likely to fall off a cliff. If you weren't afraid of getting mauled by a bear, you'd be more likely to get mauled by a bear.

Unfortunately, fear is a rather nonspecific emotion, and it can be triggered by situations in the modern world that aren't physically dangerous. This is different from "irrational fear", but it's probably "unnecessary" at best. The nervousness you feel before a job interview isn't actually keeping you safe; to the contrary, it might interfere with your ability to get that job.

Regardless of the fear-eliciting situation, the biological cause is essentially the same. The limbic system in the brain receives a copy of sensory input as well as some cortical activity, and it monitors the emotional content of the brain state. The amygdala is particularly important for detecting "fearsome" stimuli, and the hypothalamus executes most of the changes that put you into a fear-state.

I wasn't sure exactly what level of "cause" you meant, so I tried to address it from multiple perspectives. Hopefully one of them was useful.

Answer 3

what causes fear in adults aged from 70 - 90 years?

Answer 4

In Darwinian Theory it all comes down to survival of the fittest. when threatened we can either fight, flight or freeze. Fear is when we experience a threat and our bodies produce adrenanaline to enable us to either run away, fight the threat, though sometimes people just freeze and do neither. The horrible feeling in your stomach is the fact all resources going to other parts of body, away from stomach to enable you to either run or fight. Also when scared, people need the loo, and the theory here is that you can run away quicker if you are lighter and so going to the loo makes you lighter. Not making this stuff up either as crazy as it sounds

Answer 5

The cause is entertaining it. It feeds itself if we let it. Almost everything we fear will never even come close to coming or being true. We feed it and it grows into powers it does notactually possess.

Answer 6

Lack of love.
Lack of trust.
Lack of money.
Lack of fortitude.
Lack of confidence.

How's that for a start?




Now, if your follow-up question was "How do you get rid of it?" For me, it was trust in God.

Answer 7

Some sort of threat, imagined or real.