Fear is the oldest and the most important function of our survival mechanism. It’s the fear that helps us learn to avoid dangerous situations. When we touch something hot and jerk our hands back, we remember the pain and associate fear with that sensation. It’s the fear which has helped us evolve. The prefrontal cortex of our brain helps in thinking and planning. If any information is lacking, it creates different scenarios taking cues from previous events that might be similar. This lack of information creates uncertainty and causes anxiety. With rapid rising cases of coronavirus worldwide in the times of such an evolved technological era, the absence of a vaccine yet has caused quite a lot of uncertainty and fear amongst the public. In such times, our brain jumps to the worst conclusions, thus increasing stress and anxiety. Anxiety and fear are contagious and the world stands witness to this fact. In psychology, the spread of emotion from one person to another is termed as social

Author-Shlok Talati