title: Fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat.
abstract: ThisDisaster HealthBriefing focuses on the work of an expanding team of researchers that is exploring the dynamics of fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat.Fear-related behaviors are individual or collective behaviors and actions initiated in response to fear reactions that are triggered by a perceived threat or actual exposure to a potentially traumatizing event. Importantly, fear-related behaviors modulate the future risk of harm. 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.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati, UC Health-University of Cincinnati Physicians , Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Espinola
authors.affiliation: Center for Disaster & Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center), University of Miami Miller School of Medicine , Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Shultz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Jackson Memorial Hospital , Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Zelde
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Espinel
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Althouse
authors.affiliation: The Carter Center, Mental Health Program Liberia , Monrovia, Liberia.
authors.forename: Janice L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Makerere University School of Public Health , Kampala, Uganda.
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baingana
authors.affiliation: Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED), Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Louis Herns
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Marcelin
authors.affiliation: Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED), Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Toni
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cela
authors.affiliation: Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Towers
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre , Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mazurik
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health , Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: M Claire
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: Colorado School of Public Health , Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Alyssa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Colorado School of Public Health , Fort Collins, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fredrickson
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences , Fargo, ND, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McLean
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW), University of Denver , Denver, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rechkemmer
keywords: EVD; Ebola; Ebola virus disease; FRBs; fear; fear-related behaviors; flood; hurricane; mass threat; outbreak; pandemic; threat