̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - fear

World War II bombing associated with resilience, not ‘German Angst’

cjb250 — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 16:00:25 +0000

Germans have been stereotyped as being industrious and punctual, but also as being more likely to be anxious and worried, a phenomenon described as ‘German Angst’. Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, widely regarded as one of Germany’s leading post-war intellectuals, once claimed, “ ̽��ֱ��Germans have a tendency to be afraid. This has been part of their consciousness since the end of the Nazi period and the war”.

This personality type is characterised by high levels of neurotic personality traits (more likely to be in a negative emotional state), as opposed to traits of openness, agreeableness, extraversion, or conscientiousness, which together make up the ‘Big Five’ personality traits. It has been suggested that the heavy bombing of German cities in World War II, and the resulting destruction and trauma experienced by residents, may have been a contributory factor in this proposed higher incidence of neurotic traits.

In a study published this week in European Journal of Personality, an international team of researchers from the UK, Germany, USA, and Australia, analysed the neurotic personality traits and mental health of over 33,500 individuals across 89 regional German cities that experienced wartime bombing, and investigated whether people in cities that experienced higher levels of bombing were more likely to display neurotic traits. ̽��ֱ��researchers measured neurotic traits using the Big Five Inventory personality test as part of an online questionnaire, and focused on measures of neuroticism, anxiety, and depression.

“If the idea of ‘German Angst’ is true, then we’d expect people from cities that were heavily bombed during the war to be more anxious and less resilient to new stresses such as economic hardship,” says study author Dr Jason Rentfrow from the Department of Psychology, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “Ours is the first study to investigate this link.”

̽��ֱ��researchers found that in fact, residents of heavily bombed cities were less likely to display neurotic traits, suggesting that wartime bombing is not a factor in German Angst. ̽��ֱ��results indicate that residents of heavily bombed German cities instead recorded higher levels of mental resilience and were better able to cope in times of stress.

“We’ve seen from other studies that when people experience difficulties in life, these can provide them with a broader perspective on things and perhaps make more trivial stresses seem unimportant,” explains Dr Rentfrow. “It’s possible that this is what we are seeing here.”

̽��ֱ��researchers also looked at how Germany compared to 107 other countries for neurotic traits, to see whether there really was evidence of ‘German Angst’. They found that Germany ranks 20th, 31st, and 53rd for depression, anxiety, and neuroticism respectively. Additionally, other countries that have experienced significant trauma due to warfare, such as Japan, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, also did not score highly for neurotic traits, further suggesting that such traumatic events are not associated with increased neuroticism.

“Germany didn’t stand out as high in anything resembling angst compared with other countries, which suggests that maybe this stereotype of ‘German Angst’ isn’t entirely valid,” says Dr Rentfrow. “Clearly we need to be careful about national stereotypes.”

̽��ֱ��researchers emphasise that their findings show only an association, and that this data does not show whether more severe bombing caused greater mental resilience, or whether other factors were at play.

Although this research may have implications for other war-torn countries, including the current situation in Syria cities, the study did not investigate potential neuroticism or resilience in these countries, so no wider conclusions can be drawn from this data.

Study participants filled out online questionnaires provided by the global Gosling-Potter Internet Project, including 44 questions to assess their personality and mental state. Of the sample, just under 60% were female and the mean age was 30 years old. Almost all (96%) of the respondents were White/Caucasian while just under one in three (30%) had a bachelor’s degree or higher, and overall the sample was broadly representative of the populations of the cities assessed. Although the researchers tried to control for the movement of people between different cities, there were limitations with the data available from the online survey and so this movement may have affected the results.

̽��ֱ��data also could not tell whether increased resilience was associated with a recent event, or whether it was associated with an event from many years or even decades ago. However, there is broader literature to support the notion of traumas increasing resilience in individuals, and more research in this area would shed further light on the relationship and potential mechanisms at play.

Experiencing traumatic events may be associated with greater mental resilience among residents rather than causing widespread angst, suggests a study published this week that investigated the effect of World War II bombing on the mental health of citizens in German cities.

Maybe this stereotype of ‘German Angst’ isn’t entirely valid

Jason Rentfrow

Imperial War Museum

A house in Darmstadt destroyed by an Allied bombing raid.

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Reconditioning the brain to overcome fear

ps748 — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 16:00:00 +0000

Fear related disorders affect around one in 14 people and place considerable pressure on mental health services. Currently, a common approach is for patients to undergo some form of aversion therapy, in which they confront their fear by being exposed to it in the hope they will learn that the thing they fear isn’t harmful after all. However, this therapy is inherently unpleasant, and many choose not to pursue it. Now a team of neuroscientists from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Japan and the USA, has found a way of unconsciously removing a fear memory from the brain.

̽��ֱ��team developed a method to read and identify a fear memory using a new technique called ‘Decoded Neurofeedback’. ̽��ֱ��technique used brain scanning to monitor activity in the brain, and identify complex patterns of activity that resembled a specific fear memory. In the experiment, a fear memory was created in 17 healthy volunteers by administering a brief electric shock when they saw a certain computer image. When the pattern was detected, the researchers over-wrote the fear memory by giving their experimental subjects a reward.

Dr. Ben Seymour, of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Engineering Department, was one of the authors on the study. He explained the process:

" ̽��ֱ��way information is represented in the brain is very complicated, but the use of artificial intelligence (AI) image recognition methods now allow us to identify aspects of the content of that information. When we induced a mild fear memory in the brain, we were able to develop a fast and accurate method of reading it by using AI algorithms. ̽��ֱ��challenge then was to find a way to reduce or remove the fear memory, without ever consciously evoking it.

"We realised that even when the volunteers were simply resting, we could see brief moments when the pattern of fluctuating brain activity had partial features of the specific fear memory, even though the volunteers weren't consciously aware of it. Because we could decode these brain patterns quickly, we decided to give subjects a reward - a small amount of money - every time we picked up these features of the memory."

̽��ֱ��team repeated the procedure over three days. Volunteers were told that the monetary reward they earned depended on their brain activity, but they didn’t know how. By continuously connecting subtle patterns of brain activity linked to the electric shock with a small reward, the scientists hoped to gradually and unconsciously override the fear memory.

Scan of brain showing information associated with a fear memory Credit Ai Koizumi

Dr Ai Koizumi, of the Advanced Telecommunicatons Research Institute International, Kyoto and Centre of Information and Neural Networks, Osaka, led the research:

"In effect, the features of the memory that were previously tuned to predict the painful shock, were now being re-programmed to predict something positive instead."

̽��ֱ��team then tested what happened when they showed the volunteers the pictures previously associated with the shocks.

"Remarkably, we could no longer see the typical fear skin-sweating response. Nor could we identify enhanced activity in the amygdala - the brain's fear centre,” she continued. “This meant that we'd been able to reduce the fear memory without the volunteers ever consciously experiencing the fear memory in the process."

Although the sample size in this initial study was relatively small, the team hopes the technique can be developed into a clinical treatment for patients with PTSD or phobias.

"To apply this to patients, we need to build a library of the brain information codes for the various things that people might have a pathological fear of, say, spiders” adds Dr Seymour. "Then, in principle, patients could have regular sessions of Decoded Neurofeedback to gradually remove the fear response these memories trigger."

Such a treatment could have major benefits over traditional drug based approaches. Patients could also avoid the stress associated with exposure therapies, and any side-effects resulting from those drugs.

Koizumi et al. “Fear reduction without fear through reinforcement of neural activity that bypasses conscious exposure” Nature Human Behaviour: DOI:10.1038/S41562-016-0006

Researchers have discovered a way to remove specific fears from the brain, using a combination of artificial intelligence and brain scanning technology. Their technique, published in the inaugural edition of Nature Human Behaviour, could lead to a new way of treating patients with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias.

̽��ֱ��challenge then was to find a way to reduce or remove the fear memory, without ever consciously evoking it

Ben Seymour

Geoff Oxford

Large house spider on kitchen floor

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EX-TRA-PO-LATE! Moral philosophy and the Daleks

bjb42 — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:01:03 +0000

It shouldn’t work, but somehow it does. Ever since Doctor Who first aired in 1963, the series has been internationally recognisable thanks to one of the most ridiculous space-creatures ever conceived; a master race of intergalactic pepperpots, armed with a sink plunger and an egg whisk, who (according to popular mythology), are hell-bent on conquering anywhere, provided it doesn’t involve stairs.

But don’t let that fool you. For more than 45 years, the Doctor’s arch-enemies, the Daleks, have been striking fear into young viewers with their chilling war-cry of “Exterminate!”. Like the Doctor himself, they have become an icon of British culture. For many, hiding behind the sofa when they appear is virtually a rite of passage.

Now, with the new season of Doctor Who nearly upon us, a Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� academic has turned his mind to what makes the Daleks so terrifying. Writing in a new paper, Dr Robin Bunce – normally a researcher in intellectual history – explores why these unlikeliest of sci-fi foes bettered the rest, and became the most menacing alien ever to invade the small screen.

His answer has nothing to do with their often-cited, non-human appearance, nor their weird, electronic voices. In fact, Dr Bunce believes that the Daleks succeed because they offer us a moral lesson in what it means to be human in the first place. They terrify us because the evil they represent is a more precise definition than that of philosophers stretching from Socrates to Kant. They are chilling, he argues, because they are a vision of what we ourselves might become.

“ ̽��ֱ��reason the Daleks are evil is because we recognise that they were once better,” Dr Bunce explained. “They are the nightmare future we dread.”

“According to their back-story, once they were capable of genuine emotion and real moral good. Now they are sexless, heartless brains, shut up in machines incapable of intimacy, who have forgotten what it means to laugh and no longer think of themselves as individuals. We recognise the Daleks as evil because they have lost all that we hold most dear.”

̽��ֱ��Daleks are perhaps Doctor Who’s greatest success. After their first appearance, they boosted ratings and turned the show into a national phenomenon. “Dalekmania” became a common term and “Dalek” itself now commands its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Almost half a century later, their popularity shows little sign of subsiding. A 2008 survey by the National Trust found that while only 53% of children could identify an oak leaf, nine out of 10 could identify a Dalek. In 2010, readers of the science fiction magazine SFX voted the Dalek as the all-time greatest monster, beating both Godzilla and Gollum from ̽��ֱ��Lord Of ̽��ֱ��Rings.

Dr Bunce, a bye-fellow at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, decided to explore what it is that makes these villains so villainous in the first place. He returned to the original 1963 script for “ ̽��ֱ��Daleks”, in which they first appeared, which was written by their creator, Terry Nation. In the story, the Doctor and his companions arrive on a post-apocalyptic planet, Skaro. They encounter both Daleks and the more peaceful Thals.

His paper concludes that the Daleks are a more powerful representation of evil than most of their extra-terrestrial competitors. ̽��ֱ��fact that they are so morally repugnant is, he suggests, what makes them both frightening for viewers and (as a result) an enduring success. This stems from a very modern take on the idea of evil.

Nation’s script stresses the Daleks’ lack of humanity as the essence of their evil nature. This in itself is nothing new – since time immemorial evil people have been described as animals, because animals are not rational. Socrates had a similar view, arguing that reason and knowledge make humans good.

Daleks are different, however, because they are more rational than humans, but also far more evil. Instead of losing their capacity for rational thought, they have lost their ability to feel. As the plot of ‘ ̽��ֱ��Daleks’ unfolds, we discover that after an apocalyptic “Neutronic war”, they retreated into metal shells in which their emotions withered. ̽��ֱ��fact that they were once better, Bunce says, makes them horrifying: “We dread becoming like them.”

For viewers in 1963, living shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, some of the connotations in Nation’s original script would have been more relevant than they are today. ̽��ֱ��surface of Skaro resembles contemporary ideas about how Earth might look after a nuclear war. ̽��ֱ��“Neutronic War” refers to the spectre of the neutron bomb – which could emit more radiation than an atomic bomb, but with a lower blast. As a result, it was more selective in wiping out humans and animal life, but not buildings and infrastructure. ̽��ֱ��Daleks represented the consequences of these very real nightmares at the time.

In the 21^st century, Bunce suggests that they embody a more general fear, about the triumph of technology and science over humanity. Once creatures like us, they have mutated into something far more sinister. Inside their metal shells, they have oversized brains representing the dominance of scientific reason, at the expense of shrivelled bodies. This fear about what we might become, through scientific advancement, has existed since Victorian times. Like the Daleks, it shows little sign of abating today.

Bunce considers the Daleks a lesson in moral philosophy: “ ̽��ֱ��final lesson is that moral progress is achieved by enlarging the moral imagination, not by increasing our knowledge or becoming more rational,” he said.

“Empathy is the key. We are more likely to act well when we understand that our enemy, however different they may seem, is part of a community who will grieve if they are harmed. ̽��ֱ��Thals are good because they love each other. ̽��ֱ��Daleks don’t and that’s why they’re evil.”

A peculiar breed of evil, in fact, which has also made them a terrific success.

̽��ֱ��study appears in the book, Doctor Who and Philosophy, which is published by Open Court Books: http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/doctor_who.htm

They’ve had viewers cowering behind the sofa since ‘Doctor Who’ began – but what exactly is it that makes people so frightened of the Daleks? A new study by a Cambridge researcher claims to have the answer.

̽��ֱ��reason the Daleks are evil is because we recognise that they were once better. They are the nightmare future we dread.

Dr Robin Bunce

M. Seckington from Flickr

Dalek

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