Skeptic Check: Pandemic Fear

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Contagion aside, coronavirus is a powerful little virus. It has prompted a global experiment in behavior modification: elbow bumps instead of handshakes, hand sanitizer and mask shortages, a gyrating stock market. Pragmatism motivates our behavior toward the spread of this virus, but so do fear and panic. In 1918, amplified fear made the Spanish Flu pandemic more deadly. Can we identify when we’re acting sensibly in the face of COVID-19, or when fear has hijacked our ability to think rationally and protect ourselves? Guests: Peter Hall - Professor of public health and health systems at the University of Waterloo David DeSteno - Social psychologist and professor of psychology at Northeastern University David Smith - Virologist and Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego John Barry - writer, adjunct faculty at the Tulane School of Tropical Medicine and author of The Great Influenza; The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:50.7	Daily Crunch now wherever you get your podcasts that's Tech Crunch Daily Crunch Now, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:54.3	That's Tech Crunch Daily Crunch,
0:56.6	wherever you get your podcasts. Your brain is paying attention.
1:03.0	Your neurons are communicating with bursts of
1:15.8	chemical and electrical signals. But what about when your brain lights up with
1:19.7	fear? Fear is a strong emotion and its nature's way of preparing you to deal quickly with a threat.
1:25.0	From car crashes on slick roads to overwhelm storm drains, this weather event is already wreaking havoc.
1:31.0	Fear is a useful emotion.
1:33.2	It protects us, but some perceived threats
1:36.0	send it into overdrive.
	...

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