Mono Phobia v.s. Sociophobia
The difference between how people react in public v.s. alone
What is the difference between how people react to fear in a social situation (public) v.s. alone?
ARTICLE 1: What Do People Fear?
Everyone has some type of fear. Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies did a randomized survey to find out the most common fears in America. They were asked to rate how scared they were then took the ten fears that had the highest fear rating. The top ten fears were: Corruption of Government Officials, Cyber Terrorism, Corporate Tracking of Personal Information, Terrorist Attacks, Government Tracking of Personal Information, Bio-warfare, Identity Theft, Economic Collapse, Running out of Money the the Future, and Credit Card Fraud. The school stated: “On average, Americans expressed the highest levels of fear about man-made disasters, such as terrorist attacks, followed by fears about technology, including corporate and government tracking of personal data and fears about the government.” Many of the main fears that were on this list are lead by paranoia and distrust of others.
ARTICLE 2: How Do People React To Fear?
Everyone reacts a little differently. The most common is the “fight or flight” response. There about 12 main reactions to a phobia or fear in general (Berger). Shortness of breath (or the feeling of being smothered or suffocated), problems in the heart (ie: palpitations, pounding, or increased heart rate), chest pain, trembling/ shaking, choking feeling, numbness/ tingling, hot/ cold flashes, sweating, nausea, dizziness/ lightheadedness, feels like you are not really all there or in your body, loss of control/ feel crazy/ think you are going to die. There are many physical and emotional symptoms. One of the doctors in the article stated: “In addition to the physical symptoms, people with phobias do everything they can to avoid their phobic stimulus. For example; my mom is afraid of water and clowns so when there was a clown at the pool when she was younger she ran around her friend’s house to avoid both.
ARTICLE 3: Are Some People Afraid Of The Fact Of Being Alone In General?
Yes. Many people are afraid of the general fact of being alone. Walking alone at night hits a high percentage of people in the us. Studies have shown that 37% of adults in the U.S. are afraid to walk alone at night. Different groups of people have different levels of fear, some factors are age, gender, and household income. Among women the percentage is approximately 45% while the percentage is only 27% of men. 48% of teenagers ages 18-19 have this fear, this percentage drops to 35% in adults 30-49, to 34% in people ages 50-64, and only 31% for people ages 65 and up. Research has shown that the fear of walking alone at night in your neighborhood is higher for those with lower income. This may be because people feel like it is easier to be injured in a poor neighborhood because there are people in the area that are really that desperate. Women have a history of being attacked more often than men. With ages, this can be explained by the fact that young adults are just getting used to the fact of being away from their parents, plus the older the person is, the less likely they are to have been born in a time such as this. For example; My grandma said that when she was a little girl, people did not have to worry about locking their doors. My grandpa also was young during such a time, he still forgets to lock his door because for a long time there was no need. “Almost 40% of Americans do not feel safe walking near their homes alone at night, a poll finds” (Devaney).