When I consider doing a difficult/time-consuming/expensive but potentially rewarding activity, it often provokes anxiety. Examples include running ten miles, doing an extensive blog post series on regenerative medicine, and going to grad school. Let’s call this cost/benefit anxiety.
Other times, the immediate actions I’m considering are equally “costly,” but one provokes more fear than the others even though it is not obviously stupid. One example is whether or not to start blogging under my real name. Call it fear of the unknown.
It’s natural that the brain uses the same emotional system to deal with both types of decisions.
It seems more reasonable to take cost/benefit anxiety seriously. There, the emotion seems to be a “slow down and consider this thoroughly” signal.
Fear of the unknown is different. This seems the appropriate domain for Isusr’s fear heuristic: do your due diligence to check that the feared option is not obviously stupid, and if not, do it.
Then again, maybe fear of the unknown is just another form of cost/benefit anxiety. Maybe it’s saying “you haven’t adequately thought about the worst or long-term potential consequences here.” Perhaps the right approach is in fact to change your action to have small, manageable confrontations with the anxiety in a safe environment; or to do small tests of the considered action to build confidence.
Cost/benefit anxiety is not fear of the unknown
When I consider doing a difficult/time-consuming/expensive but potentially rewarding activity, it often provokes anxiety. Examples include running ten miles, doing an extensive blog post series on regenerative medicine, and going to grad school. Let’s call this cost/benefit anxiety.
Other times, the immediate actions I’m considering are equally “costly,” but one provokes more fear than the others even though it is not obviously stupid. One example is whether or not to start blogging under my real name. Call it fear of the unknown.
It’s natural that the brain uses the same emotional system to deal with both types of decisions.
It seems more reasonable to take cost/benefit anxiety seriously. There, the emotion seems to be a “slow down and consider this thoroughly” signal.
Fear of the unknown is different. This seems the appropriate domain for Isusr’s fear heuristic: do your due diligence to check that the feared option is not obviously stupid, and if not, do it.
Then again, maybe fear of the unknown is just another form of cost/benefit anxiety. Maybe it’s saying “you haven’t adequately thought about the worst or long-term potential consequences here.” Perhaps the right approach is in fact to change your action to have small, manageable confrontations with the anxiety in a safe environment; or to do small tests of the considered action to build confidence.