Fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat.

Journal: Disaster health

Volume: 3

Issue: 4

Year of Publication: 

Affiliated Institutions:  Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati, UC Health-University of Cincinnati Physicians , Cincinnati, OH, USA. Center for Disaster & Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center), University of Miami Miller School of Medicine , Miami, FL, USA. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Jackson Memorial Hospital , Miami, FL, USA. Institute for Disease Modeling, Bellevue, WA, USA; University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA; Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA. The Carter Center, Mental Health Program Liberia , Monrovia, Liberia. Makerere University School of Public Health , Kampala, Uganda. Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED), Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA. Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED), Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA. Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ, USA. Department of Emergency Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre , Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore, MD, USA. Colorado School of Public Health , Fort Collins, CO, USA. Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences , Fargo, ND, USA. Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW), University of Denver , Denver, CO, USA.

Abstract summary 

This Briefing focuses on the work of an expanding team of researchers that is exploring the dynamics of fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat. . Disaster case scenarios are presented to illustrate how fear-related behaviors operate when a potentially traumatic event threatens or endangers the physical and/or psychological health, wellbeing, and integrity of a population. Fear-related behaviors may exacerbate harm, leading to severe and sometimes deadly consequences as exemplified by the Ebola pandemic in West Africa. Alternatively, fear-related behaviors may be channeled in a constructive and life-saving manner to motivate protective behaviors that mitigate or prevent harm, depending upon the nature of the threat scenario that is confronting the population. The interaction between fear-related behaviors and a mass threat is related to the type, magnitude, and consequences of the population encounter with the threat or hazard. The expression of FRBs, ranging from risk exacerbation to risk reduction, is also influenced by such properties of the threat as predictability, familiarity, controllability, preventability, and intentionality.

Authors & Co-authors:  Espinola Shultz Espinel Althouse Cooper Baingana Marcelin Cela Towers Mazurik Greene Beck Fredrickson McLean Rechkemmer

Study Outcome 

Source Link: Visit source

Statistics
Citations :  Shultz JM, Cooper JL, Baingana F, Oquendo MA, Espinel Z, Althouse BM, Marcelin LH, Towers S, Espinola M, McCoy CB, et al.. The role of fear-related behaviors in the 2013-2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease outbreak. Curr Psychiatry Rep 2016; 18(11):104; PMID:27739026; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11920-016-0741-y
Authors :  15
Identifiers
Doi : 10.1080/21665044.2016.1263141
SSN : 2166-5044
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Other Terms
EVD;Ebola;Ebola virus disease;FRBs;fear;fear-related behaviors;flood;hurricane;mass threat;outbreak;pandemic;threat
Study Design
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
United States