Many of us remember vividly being yelled at or feeling fear from a family member, a teacher, or a boss.
Terrifying experiences often get imprinted in your memories; remembering frightening events is essential to avoid them in future. It is a normal reaction that promotes your survival.
This strong connection between fear and memory may lead you to think fear can be an effective learning tool. Research shows, however, that fear can have long-term negative consequences for children and adults alike — and can actually make it harder to learn in meaningful ways.
Here’s what the research says about how and what we learn when we are scared.
How fear affects children’s learning
Fear is designed to protect you from current and future danger.
If children are faced with experiences that trigger fear, they learn to avoid new experiences — as opposed to exploring, engaging, and approaching the unknown with curiosity.
Consistent exposure to fear changes how the brain reacts to the outside world. Fear triggers a stress response in the brain and puts it in a state of alert; you become hyper ready to react swiftly and decisively to incoming threats.
This may be appropriate if, for example, you are confronted by an aggressive stranger. But such high levels of reactivity are not productive in learning environments like school, where you are asked to be open to new experiences and create innovative solutions.
In fact, the areas of the brain activated when you’re scared are different to those you use when thinking carefully how to address a tricky problem. Research has shown the more primitive parts of the brain take over the activity of the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s “control center,” when you’re in a state of fear.
This means planning, making sound decisions, and using your existing knowledge becomes very difficult if you feel threatened or afraid.
Children learn fear from the adults in their lives
Adults play a critical role in the healthy development of fear responses by modelling reactions to unknown situations. They also provide (or fail to provide) safe environments that promote children’s exploration.
Fear can be easily learned from significant adults. Studies have shown both toddlers and school-aged children learn to avoid new experiences if their parents communicate or show signs of fear in reference to them.
Think, for instance, about how a child can learn to fear animals by seeing how their parents react to them. Or, for example, the way constant warnings to “be careful!” may end up making a child too anxious to climb trees or take risks as they use play equipment.
Adult behaviors also affect the degree to which children feel safe to be themselves and explore the world with confidence.
Studies investigating the behaviors of parents have consistently shown harsh parenting (involving physical and verbal aggression) is related to poorer outcomes in children, including academic underachievement, higher levels of aggression and anxiety, and poor peer relationships.
The opposite is the case for parents who, while providing structure and reasons for boundaries, are warm and encourage autonomy.
Teachers also play a pivotal role in the development of fear responses. Students are more likely to be motivated and function well in classrooms if teachers are “autonomy-supportive.”
This means teachers:
- have a curious and open attitude toward students’ interests
- seek their perspective and offer choices
- invite their thoughts, and
- accept a range of emotions (from frustration, anger, and reticence to playfulness, joy, and curiosity).
How fear affects learning in adult life
Many people who experience anxiety in adulthood have been exposed in their childhood to environments where they have felt consistently threatened.
These adults may end up avoiding taking on new tasks, considering multiple viewpoints, and responding to questions. These are all skills employers usually value.
Work environments that induce fear can also be counterproductive and stressful.
Research suggests that when employees perceive their work environments as unsafe, they are more likely to experience burnout, anxiety, and stress. Stressful situations can also interfere with your ability to apply what you know flexibly to new situations.
On the flip side, researchers argue that a trusting relationship between employees and their managers can affect workers’ willingness to show vulnerability and take on tasks that involve uncertainty.
Researchers have also found positive relationships at work can encourage to creativity in the workplace, which makes work more interesting and enjoyable.
So what do you learn when you are scared?
Yes, you learn from fear. The question is: What do you learn?
In response to threats and hostility, you learn to avoid challenges and comply with external rules (instead of wondering how systems can be improved). You protect your feelings and restrict your thoughts to what is safe.
Is this the kind of learning that allows you to grow and develop?
More than ever, children and adults are required to collaborate in creative ways to address difficult problems.
This means dealing with uncertainty and accepting that sometimes you make mistakes or fail.
That requires safe and nurturing environments — not home, school, or work settings that are ruled by fear.
Deborah Pino Pasternak, Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education and Community, University of Canberra
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
