Anxiety, Fear, and Panic: The Role of Emotions in Prevention

In risk management, anxiety, fear, and panic are associated with disorder and considered to bias decisions. Indeed, the idea of risk emphasizes control over adverse situations; it has thus been expected to eliminate fear in human activities. However, emotions, beyond their psychological expression, are inherent to risk experiences. Against the prevailing cultural background of pessimism and anxiety, I claim that they shape views on what ought to be done to avert danger across society. This chapter thus discusses the ambivalent role of fear or panic in the prevention of health risks since efforts to discard such emotions with preventive measures are constantly counterbalanced through their amplification by professionals, policy-makers, and the media. Overall, I discuss how recurrent references to risk, rather than alleviating fear, contribute to unsettle everyday experiences of health.