On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, Michael J. Kane wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does anyone out there know anything about a recent book
> called "The Culture of Fear" written by a USC sociology
> professor named Barry Glassner?
>
> The local paper had a story centered around claims in the
> book, and it looked like it might be an interesting resource
> for class discussions on reasoning under uncertainty,
> heuristics, critical thinking, violence, urban legends, and others.
> However, before I go out and buy it, I thought I'd check here
> for any cheers or jeers.
>
> The gist of the article (and book, presumably) is that there is a
> "Fear-Industrial-Complex" in this country, composed of
> politicians, business, and media who erroneously portray the
> U.S. as much more dangerous and violent than it is.
>
> Some interesting stats reported from the book:
>
> 1) Between 1990 and 1998 the nation's murder rate dropped
> by 20% while the number of murder stories on network news-
> casts rose by 600% !!!
>
> 2) Postal employees are 2.5 times LESS likely than the average
> worker to be killed on the job.
>
> 3) There's NEVER been a single confirmed death or injury
> from poisoned Halloween candy since the scare first
> surfaced in 1958.
>
> Does anyone on the list know anything about Dr. Glassner
> or the quality of his research?
>
> -Mike
>
The dude was on NBC morning show. He seem to be implying and I agree
with him that we have a tendency to maximize the impact of certain events.
My take on this is that U.S society is a very low arousing society because
of our conditioning towards privacy,independence and self-sufficiency.
Street and public life in this society is very low key.
Certain events and media attention tend to induce a very noticeable
change in the need for higher arousals.(Opponent-process)
Hence the attention to the the arousing,even though statistically
insignificant.
As a Cross-cultural psychologists.I have noted that in cultures
where the arousal level is high,they seem to go for the mellow and
the romantic as forms of entertainment,hence in line with opponent-
process theory.
Michael Sylvester
Daytona Beach,Florida
