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Fear
emotion induced by perceived danger or threat / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fear is a feeling or an emotion. When a person has fear, they are afraid or scared. A person who fears something does not want it to happen. The fear response comes from sensing danger. It leads to the fight-or-flight response. In extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) there may be a freeze response or paralysis.
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In humans and animals, fear is adjusted by cognition and learning. Thus fear is rational or appropriate, or it is irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia.
Fear is the body's way of protecting itself from doing things that may be dangerous. For example, if one has a fear of jumping off a cliff, he/she will not do it. This saves one from death. In this case, fear is a good thing but in others, it can be bad. An example of fear being bad is if it stops one from doing something important, like going to see a doctor. Methods of controlling phobias include facing the fear over and over so the effect of the phobia becomes less until it stops being a phobia.
There is only a small set of basic or innate emotions and fear is one of them.[1] The fear response helps survival by triggering appropriate behavioral responses. It has been preserved throughout evolution.[2]