r/news • u/MIngmire • Jan 09 '18

Dad turns in teenage son after finding child pornography on cell phone

http://www.kmov.com/story/37226711/dad-turns-in-teenage-son-after-finding-inappropriate-pictures-on-phone
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u/Sawses Jan 10 '18

I mean to compare, not equate. I don't really much care which is more common; the basis for the fear is the same. We can argue about whose suffering-penis is larger anywhere; here, I mean to say why people fear, and I'd bet a large sum of money that it's not because they logically weigh the odds and compare the costs of fear versus non-fear.

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u/dude071297 Jan 10 '18

Hot damn, that was a very eloquent yet brief explanation. Wonderful job.

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u/Starwhisperer Jan 10 '18

The point is that the fear is rational in one case and irrational/slight paranoia in the other. That's the difference. Read The Gift Of Fear. It's enlightening.

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u/Sawses Jan 10 '18

The line between rational fear and irrational fear is pretty blurred. What percentage risk per day is enough for a rational fear? What level of rational fear? That's to say nothing of the fact that we don't actually know the odds to any level of accuracy or precision. Sure, one might happen more often, but who's to say it's irrational to fear the other?

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u/Starwhisperer Jan 10 '18

That's why I referenced The Gift Of Fear. It answers some of the questions you posed here. In addition, there are professions that deal with the quantification of risk, so there already exists methodology that can lead to such answers. In summary, whether a fear is rational or paranoid has to do with the rates of occurrence in the population, local area, etc... and then the subject's reality in terms of friends, habits, etc... So yes, overall a fear that someone will be falsely accused of rape is an irrational fear such as someone who is afraid of dying from a plane crash. That's why I would suggest reading the book, it's really good.

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u/Sawses Jan 10 '18

That's why I referenced The Gift Of Fear.

Ah, I see. Yeah, that was edited in right after I saw your message, I think. Or I'm insane, but likely the former.

While we can quantify risk, we can't really quantify how much fear to take on. Fear is an emotional response, not just based on statistics. I can't really say for sure if a fear is irrational unless it literally has zero basis in logic and impairs daily function. Fearing spiders is somewhat reasonable, unless you can't go five minutes without spider-checking whatever room or vehicle you're in.

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u/Starwhisperer Jan 10 '18

There is a direct correlation between risk and fear. So yes, risk helps us answer the question whether something is a reasonable fear or not. Fear is an emotional response, yes. But, the book helps you differentiate between rational vs irrational fear. Irrational fear is groundless as there is negligible risk involved, thus if you let irrational fear control you, you are doing yourself a disservice.

I don't know whether we're actually disagreeing. My point is that you can qualify fear based on whether it's rational or not. I'm not saying irrational fear is not fear. I'm not saying it's simply black and white. Most things in life are on a spectrum, but such binary classifications can be useful when making decisions. All I'm saying is that there is a framework that can be used to differentiate between rational and irrational fear, and the latter is useless to have especially if it's playing a humongous role in your life, your actions, and your mindset. Particularly, it's dangerous when used to derail conversations or when it's a talking point that dominates fruitful discussion on certain topics.

Anyway regardless, this news article is pretty terrible and sad. So this is a tangent in a way and I personally don't want to continue such discussions on here. Have a nice one!