Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation).  In the last week of September 2026, I shared an excerpt titled ‘Tribal Instincts – Secret to our Success depending on how we manage them’, which is from the book titled – ‘Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts that Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together’ by Dr.Michael Morris. According to Dr. Morris, when cultural codes operate unchecked and ripple out of control they can draw us into dysfunctional conflicts, but understanding tribal instincts enables you to break these cycles and harness them for collective action and even for social change. The excerpt highlights that, Our, tribal instincts provide us with the socio-biological means for group coordination, sharing knowledge quickly and developing common plans. He divides our tribal triggers into three categories. First, Peer instincts – where we automatically absorb what our peers are doing and mimic it, permitting us to work on common plans efficiently. Second, Hero Worship, this instinct involves aspirational hero worship, or the desire to emulate the best, and thereby gain esteem. Societies reward high contributors and this motivates us to emulate such heroes and act toward the norms they represent and Third, Respect for ancestors and tradition, this instinct involves our connection to ancestors and traditions. Now, SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of your attention, because, ‘Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to’.

Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour.

This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – ‘Fear – Emotional arousal – A tool’, which is from the book titled – ‘The science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain’ by Dan Gardner.

We humans are endlessly preoccupied with fears, anxieties and concerns of every kind: from the biggest picture threats that imperil countries, economies and civilizations to our own personal apprehensions. Yet we are the safest and healthiest humans in history. Why are we so worried?

Dan Gardner demonstrates how irrational fear springs from the ways humans miscalculate risks based on our hunter-gatherer brains—and how we can rise above them.

Fear – Emotional arousal – A tool

Our reactions are governed by whatever serves—or once served—our survival needs best, in the cultures we live in.

Fear is a highly effective way of gluing a memory in place, of course. We see particularly vivid footage of some disaster, or we have a brush with death ourselves, and our fight-or-flight response is automatically activated, and the pattern stored. It is the vividness that is relevant here.

Indeed, the harder something is to imagine, the less affected we are likely to be.

Researchers carried out cross-country surveys in the US after the release of a highly dramatic film depicting unrealistic impacts of global warming across America, such as widespread floods, food shortages and a new Ice Age. Those who had seen the movie consistently deemed such outcomes more likely. And whether or not familiarity breeds contempt, it certainly breeds gullibility: the more we hear something, even fake news we know is fake, the more inclined we become to believe it.

Innate human skill with numbers is apparently not far superior to that of rats or dolphins and can lead to naïve beliefs: told that the arsenic levels in their drinking water is three parts per billion, most people can’t make sense of that information—but they do know that “arsenic is a Bad Thing: press the panic button.”

Gardner goes on to observe that, when like-minded people form groups to discuss risks from hazardous waste or insecticides or nano particles, existing shared views tend to become more extreme, rather than being questioned—the tendency known as group polarization.

According to Gardner, the reason that we are so very scared in one of the safest times in human history all boils down to two overarching facts: we are fallible humans in an age when manipulation has never been easier.

Excerpt from ‘The science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain’ by Dan Gardner.

I am sure that you will enjoy reading the book and find it thought provoking too; to buy your copy and read a review, you can click on the following link:

https://humanjourney.us/book-reviews/the-science-of-fear-dan-gardner

Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s.

Namaste.

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