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Modern life normalizes constant psychological alertness.

Media exposure intensifies perceived personal vulnerability.

Global crises accumulate, shaping chronic societal anxiety.

The most significant threats which modern society faces are not tangible or immediate risks; rather, they are future anticipated catastrophic events. These modern risks are global in nature, whereas previously risks were limited to local, controlled environments. Beck asserts that such a transformation in our sense of risk redirects social energy toward the anticipation and prevention of future catastrophes, creating a continual state of heightened awareness (Beck, 2006). Rebughini (2021) illustrates Beck's argument, noting that anxiety has become part of the normal experience for many people in today's Western culture and that this phenomenon is exacerbated by current crises, such as COVID-19. Consequently, people find themselves in a collective state of unease.

From Fear to Chronic Anxiety

A cultural shift has moved us from having episodic fear experiences to an overall anxiety level of general fear in today's society. A huge factor in developing this heightened level of anxiety is media saturation. More continuous media exposure has increased our level of awareness regarding issues affecting us all, including terrorism and natural disasters. One key is that, regardless of whether you directly experience terrorism or natural disasters, knowledge of those events will affect how you perceive yourself when it comes to feeling vulnerable to future dangers; the concern is not whether there is danger, but when it will happen to you. The second factor that has increased our fear levels is the rise of the digital media revolution, in which we consume and share information through new technologies.

Media Saturation and the Amplification of Threat

The use of technological innovations to report on a large volume of risk-related events taking place around the globe involves the proliferation of digital technology and its impact on our emotions/decision-making processes. Research has demonstrated that awareness of risk (e.g., via media saturation) has a profound impact on how we perceive and respond to risk.

According to Garfin et al. (2022), increased media exposure throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in general anxiety for individuals compared to their prior levels. In addition to this, Rubatelli et al. (2018) writes that individuals who have been exposed to various forms of media often perceive certain likelihoods of an attack occurring based solely on media exposure. This was particularly the case for individuals who were susceptible to environmental stress.

Various studies throughout Europe found a clear connection between media use and perceived threat during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as increases in anxiety levels. Research conducted by Vacondio et al. (2021) found that using high amounts of media during the pandemic heightened feelings of worry and influenced the likelihood of adopting protective behaviour. They found similar results with an investigation carried out by Lanciano et al. (2020) into risk perception in Italy during the outbreak; however, risk perception during the outbreak was also found to relate to a broader sense of overall psychological distress than merely fear of contracting COVID-19.

Twenty Years of Cascading Crises

Additionally, Rubaltelli, Tedaldi, and Orabona (2020) were able to link media exposure to anxiety and health-related decision-making. The results of research into the effects of terrorism are similar to those found in the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Rogers et al. (2007), indirect exposure via the media can produce social and psychological impacts in a way that is similar to direct experience. According to Sheppard et al. (2006), the public does not panic easily; however, perception of threat is still impacted by communication channels, and despite the existence of statistically low levels of objective risk, repeated imagery of high levels of threat and time-sensitive wording will increase the individual's perception of vulnerability.

A sense of safety has become increasingly fragile within today's context of immediacy due to the ubiquity of information; proximity is no longer a factor, as both a bombing in another country and an extreme wildfire on another continent have become immediate and personal events, thanks to the failure of our nervous system to distinguish between what we perceive as close to us and projections of distance from us. The last two decades have seen us face multiple crises simultaneously (from cascading crises since 1990), with the first being the global war on terror (beginning in the early 2000s).

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This established new objective and subjective indicators of what it meant to be "secure" with regard to our national security policies and the way we, as citizens, understood ourselves. Then, in subsequent years, multiple financial crises/market meltdowns destabilized our economic assumptions about our role as citizens in a democratic society. In the years that followed, climate change moved from scientific debate into our lived experience as extreme weather events began to take place in various places around the world. Next came the COVID-19 pandemic, some would say the first true global event, not by design but because of its proximity to all of us, changing our routines, economies, and relationships.

Anxiety, Politics, and Democratic Vulnerability

Albertson and Gadarian (2015) point out the way anxiety affects democratic citizenship and how this affects the way groups process information and evaluate leaders in the context of hostile environments versus non-hostile ones. In hostile environments, we tend to be more alert to threats but also more easily influenced by emotionally charged messages. Kruglanski et al. (2020) also acknowledge that during times of widespread uncertainty, extremist groups have been able to further embed their danger narratives into political discourse.

Climate change contributes a particularly enduring layer of unease. The combined effects of more than 20 years of reported crisis have created a cascade of crises. As new crises continue to emerge, the psychological imprint of the previous crisis still lingers; therefore, individuals carry forward unresolved tensions and develop chronic hyper-vigilance over time. However, it would be misleading to assume that no one experiences safety at all. Studies have shown that resilience does exist. According to Wolff and Larsen (2014), perceptions of risk vary from one person to another but appear to stabilise as people adjust to the terrorist attack. Therefore, safety is not completely defined; it has a degree of precision and is made through negotiation. Each person will have their own concept of normalcy as defined by their own perception of uncertainty.

The Persistence of Perceived Threat

It is undeniable that a trend is clearly continuing. In recent years, the world has witnessed numerous threats and events of a global scale, leading to a heightened sense of alert. As humans evolved, we were wired for action during immediate perceived threats; however, by being in a constant state of alertness without any endpoint, we have come to experience a collective form of long-term anxiety. Statistically speaking, the world has not become more dangerous based on some measures; the global trend of violence and pandemics has declined when compared to other periods in time. The perception of risk, however, has greatly increased, leading to an individual's sense of omnipresent, personally experienced risk.

The "perpetually on-alert" mindset is also a result of the interrelatedness of global hazards, political messaging, and media. Do people feel safe? It may be that we must shift the way we view risk, rather than eliminate it. Understanding how society's structures, how we communicate with each other, and how our government creates incentives to fear can help us regain equilibrium. In the modern world, it is possible that the absence of risk may not be as important as the ability to find meaning in life, even though you are living in a state of risk.

Albertson, B., & Gadarian, S. K. (2015). Anxious politics: Democratic citizenship in a threatening world. Cambridge University Press.

Beck, U. (2006). Living in the world risk society. Economy and Society, 35(3), 329–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140600844902

Garfin, D. R., Holman, E. A., & Fischhoff, B. (2022). Media exposure, risk perceptions, and fear: Americans’ behavioral responses to the Ebola public health crisis. Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 14(1), a1178. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103059

Kruglanski, A. W., Gunaratna, R., & Ellenberg, M. (2020). Terrorism in time of the pandemic: Exploiting mayhem. Global Security: Health, Science and Policy, 5(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/23779497.2020.1832903

Lanciano, T., Graziano, G., Curci, A., & Costadura, S. (2020). Risk perceptions and psychological effects during the Italian COVID-19 emergency. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 580053. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.580053

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Sheppard, B., Rubin, G. J., & Wardman, J. K. (2006). Terrorism and dispelling the myth of a panic prone public. Journal of Public Health Policy, 27(3), 219–245. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jphp.3200083

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Wolff, K., & Larsen, S. (2014). Can terrorism make us feel safer? Risk perceptions and worries before and after the July 22nd attacks. Annals of Tourism Research, 44, 200–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.10.003

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