ETSU associate professor and sociologist Joseph O. Baker co-published a book titled “Fear Itself: The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America,” which was released in March, just before the pandemic in the U.S.
The book answers questions about fear, what we are afraid of and how we can react. In Baker’s book, he addresses the difference between fear control and danger control.
“Fear control is where you try to control the fear itself,” he said. “Danger control strategy is trying to do what you can to mitigate where risk is involved.”
The topic of fear is particularly relevant now during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people have turned their fear into racism against Asian people, after President Trump labeled COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” Others have turned their fear away from the issue and have altogether dissociated by forming conspiracy theories or minimizing the effects of the pandemic.
In response to danger, many governors have released “Stay at Home” and “Safer at Home” policies that only allow essential businesses to remain open to the public, including grocery stores, to-go restaurants, hospitals and pharmacies. Likewise, the CDC has released health and hygiene tips to prevent illness.
Baker addressed why people are finding it difficult to continue self-isolation when they are not directly affected or do not otherwise see the results their individual actions are making.
“If you don’t see the immediate effects of [your actions], then it takes a level of commitment to sustain it,” he said. “It’s easy to doubt the severity of [a situation] when it’s not your trouble. … You may not see a personal result from [isolation], even if the results of your community are quite positive. Nothing happening is a positive result.”
Baker said the idea of simply staying at home is easier said than done, especially when the efforts to control this pandemic have not been holistically coordinated by people with authority. Because of conflicting information, people are taking the news differently than others.
“When you get people to accept that it’s real, you can get people to take concrete steps to mitigate the danger,” he said.
For those who are not taking the pandemic seriously, Baker recommends reaching out to those close to them.
“Try to influence the people that are already in your social network … people who will listen to your opinion,” Baker said.
There are many people grieving the loss of loved ones during this pandemic. People are afraid of losing their jobs, not paying their bills, getting sick or losing someone to the virus. These are legitimate fears and are being directly addressed through security measures, unemployment benefits and other pieces of legislation.
There are also people grieving the loss of normalcy – graduations, vacations, concerts, time with friends and family. Though this may seem small in comparison to a worldwide pandemic, grieving this part of our lives is normal too.
“There has to be a recognition of the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves [in],” Baker said. “It’s okay to grieve the loss of that, sort of mourn the loss of that. We have to do that. We have to acknowledge the difficulties we face because of this.”
He reiterated what most people know by now: People must stay home to protect others.
“This calls for us to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do and are certainly not things we want to do now, but for the collective good for everyone, this is something we have to do,” Baker said. “We have to just try to make the best of it.”
