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Item Fear in the 21st Century: U.S. cultural anxiety and the psychology of stress(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Ready, Tyler James; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Robert BennettIn the 21st century, narratives circulating throughout a variety of societal landscapes emphasize the danger the country's populace faces. This creates an overall stressful environment, with the result often manifesting itself in bigotry that seems to resist facts. For instance, the racism undergirding President Trump's Muslim ban continues to persist, despite an availability of information indicating Muslims aren't any sort of meaningful threat. This dissertation examines how underexamined fear narratives affect cultural discussions like the War on Terror, social media, gun violence, and the January 6th riot in Washington DC. In analyzing texts across politics, entertainment, journalism, and academic scholarship, I illustrate how fear operates in both explicit and subtle ways. As I argue, this results in a variety of cultural discussions where people opt for the 'comfort' of well-cultivated fear tropes instead of engaging with complicated societal concerns. Myriad fear narratives (of which I analyze just four) work together to ensure people are always reminded of the danger they're in. The collective fear, as a chronic source of stress, then lessens the likelihood of any one fear association disappearing. This means that trying to address prejudice of varying types, as humanists frequently do, is a losing proposition and explains why people often seem to ignore facts. In drawing upon psychology and neurology, I further the fields of American studies and affect theory in explaining how an understanding of human physiology helps explain these contentious arenas. I argue we need a theory of fear that builds upon established scientific research and presents a roadmap for addressing both individual fear discourses, and how they function together in the aggregate.Item Cultural super volcano: a cultural history of Yellowstone's hot spot via eco-paranoia(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Atwood, Erin; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brett WalkerPeople who experienced previous natural disasters later develop a characteristic of miscalculating risk in current and future natural disasters due to the emotional intensity of fear clouding their capability to estimate their true danger in such scenarios. Eco-Paranoia is termed in this thesis as a foundational reasoning for the miscalculation. The oversight of risk due to overrunning fear currently elevates anxiety towards Yellowstone National Park's anticipated super eruption. What fuels these fears and causes humans to exhibit irrational decisions during natural disasters? Outside influences such as the mass media, first-hand disaster experience, historic response to cultural shifts in ideologies, and human response to fear and insecurities generate the miscalculated risk that results in a shift in human thinking and behavior. An analysis into the experiences of Mt. St. Helens survivors is included to help interpret modern human response to volcanic eruptions into a speculation of reaction with a Yellowstone eruption. The need to understand the function of fear as it activates human thought and behavior is elaborated on to analyze its influencing impact. Culturally, the public attuned their attention to other characteristics of the park besides the massive hot spot below when the park was first established. Fear of a destructive explosion lingered far off in their minds. All of these historical factors lead to further understanding how and why the current public is attuned, anxious, and paranoid about destructive volcanic activity in Yellowstone National Park. Eco-Paranoia, as exhibited through this thesis discusses the influence of people's constructed beliefs and ideologies that ultimately cause them to be fearful and paranoid for something that does not necessarily deserve such worry; the clouding of calculating risk due to fear during natural disasters. By nature, humans succumb to their emotions of fear and ultimately are the cause of their distress in natural disaster situations.Item Twist and mess(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1994) Filloux, Marianne IsabelleIn these paintings I have found it essential to create a two dimensional space which depicts the forest in a life-like scale. Landscape imagery which presents nature as miniaturized often depicts the natural world as diminutive and merely picturesque. I want to convey action within the forest These paintings are the product of my "re"action to the forests’ intimate and yet potentially dangerous interior. This reaction is dependent on my observation of nature as a force which easts in spite of my presence. The undercurrent of fear often felt in nature may have as much to do with feeling we are in a domain that ultimately falls out of our control, as it does with the undeniable physical dangers which occur in this territory.Item Extinction of the avoidance response and fear reduction through second-order conditioning(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1976) Riddle, Leslie ZaneItem Dead-set against it? : thoughts of death can promote resistance to attitude change(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2007) Dood, Tiffany Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ian M. HandleyTerror Management Theory (TMT) argues that people experience an underlying sense of 'terror' when presented with their own mortality, causing them to more strongly defend their ideals (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 2000). Although much support exists for this idea, prior research has not specifically investigated whether mortality reminders will enhance individuals' resistance to persuasive attempts that are counter to their existing attitudes. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine how reminders of individuals' mortality affect participants' attitudes towards persuasive messages that were pro- or counter-attitudinal. In the presented study, participants' mortality was or was not made salient. Next, participants read a pro- or counter-attitudinal essay regarding a tuition plan that was supported by strong or weak arguments, after which message attitudes were assessed. Results indicated that participants formed more favorable attitudes after reading pro-attitudinal essays and less favorable attitudes after reading counter-attitudinal essays. This effect was particularly pronounced in the mortality salience condition. These results are consistent with TMT in that reminders of mortality lead individuals to resist (i.e., form more unfavorable attitudes) counter-attitudinal persuasive appeals.