How to Counter Fear-Based Messaging

This post is the second of a two-part series on fear. You can read part 1 here.

In Part 1, we reviewed how the heightened landscape of media fear has operated on our collective psyche to help fear win in the market of ideas. In this Part 2, we're going to dig into ways to resolve that fear.

1. Background: Why fear overwhelms rationality

What do we do when we’re afraid? We cling to each other for safety in numbers. As social animals who evolved with few innate physical means to defend ourselves, we had to band together to survive. And as a result, we are constantly evaluating our own social position and anything that might cause us to lose face or rank in our larger group.

To lessen our social anxiety, our subconscious goal is to identify the “rules” of the in-group and act accordingly. When we behave in this fashion, nothing is more rewarding to us than seeing a positive, affirming message about our chosen group – our football team won, our party won an election, etc. These kinds of affirmations mean that our identity is “right”. And to avoid cognitive dissonance, we must preserve the rightness of that group for our own (psychological) safety.

When you see a group of people whose actions seem irrational or impervious to facts and data, they are acting out of social fear.

These people respond at an emotional level, not a “rational” level, so their justifications for their own behavior don’t need to make logical sense. All they want to do in that moment is soothe the cognitive dissonance that occurs when presented with threatening information.

These in-groups will cling to positions in spite of evidence to the contrary because they are responding to social cues from others around them, not factual evidence. To accept that a group has been wrong would signal that their identity itself is flawed, and the perceived psychological fear that results from this scenario can be so great that these individuals reject all evidence to the contrary.

When trying to counter fear, fact-based arguments will not change anyone's mind.

You must communicate on an emotional level to address social fears.

Fear craves control

A group united in fear craves safety and security. They want to look around and know that the world will operate exactly as it "should". Subconsciously, what is happening is that their minds seek to offload emotions and mental processing. But outwardly, the fear manifests in behavior designed to increase control.

The world is a big, chaotic place. Each year, when Chapman University does a Survey of American Fears, it finds that issues that lie outside of our individual control such as government corruption, economic collapse, war, and illness regularly top the list.

So people operating in fear will seek to control the perceived causes of their fear: the military, the government, the police, other ethnic groups, etc.

The desire for control manifests as defiance

Psychologists have coined the term psychological reactance for the behavior in which someone does the opposite of what is requested in order to soothe a perceived lack of control. You'll probably recognize this fear-driven behavior from the COVID-19 pandemic

When the virus forced the world to radically alter how it operated in order to slow the disease’s spread, people transferred their fears over a lack of control to behavior that they could control. Wearing a mask acknowledged several fears: the disease was serious, and it was possible for anyone to get it. That fear struck directly against a belief that “it won’t happen to me” or “I’m stronger than the virus”, and the end result was that a vocal minority of people chose to go maskless and forgo or protest the vaccines in order to reassert their control.

2. How do you counter fear-based messaging?

Emotion-based messaging is the best way to counter fear

Once an audience has fallen into the grip of fear, it is incredibly hard to loosen those clutches. Research has shown that changing someone’s mind requires you to be three times more persuasive, which means your communications will need to pack an even stronger emotional punch. The question is, which emotional chord should you strike?

Fighting fear with fear (or flowers)

You can of course use fear-based messaging. But recall the issue of primacy we discussed in part 1: your target has likely already been exposed to your issue, and will reject additional interpretations of it.

As well, the challenge with a negative messaging approach is that, even though our brains are highly sensitive to fear and anger, people will eventually withdraw from negative information to protect their mental health. In fact, an Oxford/Reuters study found that people around the world are consuming less news than ever thanks to a rising wave of media distrust and concerns about the news’s effects on their mental health.?

While fear might capture more initial attention, over the long term positive messages win.

A study from the New York Times and the Marketing Science Institute found that while social media content that evoked anger or anxiety was more frequently shared,?positive content was actually more viral overall.

So you may want to have a one-two punch of emotional content prepared, with your jab being the repeated drumbeat of fear to prime your audience’s pump, and your uppercut being a more comforting, welcoming message to ease concern and provide emotional support.

Speaking of which, research shows that there’s no more positive motivator than enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm will conquer fear

Recall the social fear we discussed at the beginning of this article. We constantly seek behavioral cues from others, and if we see enough cues from enough people pointing in the same direction we can experience the phenomenon of emotional contagion. Emotional contagion simply means that we are able to influence each other’s moods by openly expressing our own emotions.

Enter enthusiasm.

One of the most powerful ways to change someone’s emotional state is to expose them to others who espouse the change you’d like to see. Enthusiasm-based campaigns generally follow a specific blueprint:

1. Make your target aware of their peers' views on a certain issue
2. Demonstrate the expected values and actions based on those emotions
3. Show how popular those values and actions are
4. Give your target the opportunity to participate

Enthusiasm campaigns require you to be loud, vocal, and constant. You cannot be shy when conquering fear.

Shared symbols, experiences and events all help grow enthusiasm. And the more enthusiastic people your target sees, the more safety they'll see in the numbers related to your cause.

Enthusiasm is not an easy lift. It relies on volunteers, constant action, and more. But it does work.

And if it doesn't, you can always fight dirty.

The power of shame

Shame represents one of the most powerful drivers of individual behavioral change.

Shame strikes directly at our innate need for social acceptance, and carries the threat of being outcast from the social group that provides protection. In order to feel psychologically secure, an individual targeted with a shame campaign will have to make amends in some way to restore their place in the group.

Shame-based approaches focus on direct confrontation with individuals and organizations. They call out unwanted behavior and attempt to hit targets where they hurt: their customer base, their voters, their employees, their neighbors, their families, etc. Generally, they will use unpleasant truths as the basis to start attacking a reputation and count on a public relations snowball to build as more media pick up the issue and add pressure.

Think of a shame-based approach as tough love, or punching a bully in the nose.

Shame campaigns rub a fear-mongers' nose in the consequences of their actions, and can be more directly effective in reducing fear's effects because they demonstrate oppositional strength.

Conclusion: so what do we do now?

The current administration has built its messaging entirely on irrational fear - fear of immigrants, fear of the country's fiscal position, fear of our allies, and more. It relies on the panic and chaos this approach generates. The counter to this fear is enthusiastic, vocal, visible support of an alternative.

What you must do is provide that alternative. Be vocal, be visible, and remember that you have power. Less than 23% of the country's population voted for the current president, who once again lost the popular vote. Where you spend your money, the social causes you support, and the direct actions you take to resist fascism and support others in the same cause are all part of that enthusiasm.

You must act. You must have courage. And you must win.

Please reach out if you'd like to discuss any of these approaches or join in a campaign to reverse the rising tide of fear. We are at a critical time in history, and our actions now will determine the world in which our children will live.