Why do horror movies hold such appeal when they include threats that we would normally avoid? Have you ever watched one and yelled out “Don’t go down those stairs into that dark basement!” from the edge of your seat? Have you ever felt compelled to look more closely at something just because it is dangerous or scary? This is something called “predator inspection.” Some species will deliberately approach a potential predator to gather information. The risk is immediate, but the long-term benefit is better threat assessment. Animals that never encounter predators often become less capable of recognizing danger which is a liability in the survival game. If you’ve ever seen medieval artwork that shows predators the artist never encountered, it’s pretty obvious: lions, whales, sharks and other real animals end up looking more like invented animals (e.g. dragons). Or in one case, we saw a lion pedestal below a baptistry, and the lion faces looked like my second grade teacher, Mr. Walker.

Do you think that people from sheltered environments are more vulnerable to threats due to lack a predator inspection in their community and their personal experience? There are some ways that these environments can increase vulnerability. If a child grows up in an environment where:

  • authority figures are consistently trusted
  • conflict is minimized
  • deception is either rare or hidden
  • dissent is discouraged
  • difficult topics are avoided

they will have fewer opportunities to develop skills such as:

  • detecting manipulation
  • evaluating conflicting claims
  • recognizing dishonesty
  • setting boundaries
  • tolerating uncertainty

When they encounter skilled manipulators, they may lack the skills and experience needed to recognize the warning signs and avoid the threat. People who have been scammed once are less likely to be scammed again in the same way. People who see trusted people make and admit mistakes are more likely to evaluate limitations honestly. People who encounter conflicting viewpoints are more able to question assertions made to them by those who seem authoritative or confident. They develop something called epistemic vigilance, the ability to evaluate whether sources and information are reliable.

There is a species on Star Trek that was introduced in the Discovery series. First officer Saru is a Kelpien. He is from a planet called Kaminar which has two sentient species: one that is a predator of the other. His species was preyed upon by the dominant, aggressive Ba’ul species. As a result, the Kelpiens developed a “threat ganglia” in their brain that was hypersensitive to any danger, emitting an intense, involuntary biological sense of danger whenever a threat was near. The more advance Ba’ul species deliberately cultivated this sense of fear in the Kelpiens, creating a religion in which young Kelpiens were protected until maturity, then preyed upon by the Ba’ul. As we learn through Saru’s journey, this religion was created by the Ba’ul because they were originally the prey species. By culling the Kelpiens before they reached full maturity, they could dominate their former predators. Saru alters his destiny by undergoing the vahar’ai process that turns him from fearful and hesitant to a more aggressive and dominant individual, shedding his threat ganglia.

Because of Saru’s evolution, he was a particularly humble and empathetic leader, using courage to protect others, not to freeze up in fear. He became brave and decisive. Before shedding his threat ganglia, he was also effective at warning others of dangers they couldn’t yet detect. He was measured and diplomatic in approaching conflict, but capable of being analytical and tactically competent. This made him an effective captain.

Too much predator inspection is not always a good thing, as you can likely imagine. When staying at my parents’ house, I saw a binder my mother apparently created in 2004 full of scary cartoons from the newspaper about hurricanes and the impact they had on creating panic in the community. There were also cartoons about terrorism and anthrax specifically. She’s no longer around to explain what the purpose of this binder was, but it seemed like an obsession of sorts. It’s not uncommon for the elderly to find their circumstances frightening and bewildering. Perhaps that was preying on her mind at that time. I have heard similar fears from other people as they age: fear of crime, violence (especially sexual violence), loss of property, threats to loved ones, etc. And these fears have some basis in reality, of course.

I recently started watching The Testaments, the series based on the follow up book to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. This part of the story shows events that occur several years later as June’s daughter who was kidnapped and is being raised in a commander’s family in Gilead comes of age along with her same-age peers. Dissent is not only discouraged but considered a capital crime, and the girls are frequently taken on field trips to see the corpses of “dissidents,” and to witness brutal corporal punishment of individuals who didn’t follow “God’s laws” as enforced by the community. Agnes (June’s daughter Hannah with her new Gilead name) is beginning to see, for the first time, that the beautiful and safe community she lives in where the only identified threats are outsiders who hate God is actually not all it’s cracked up to be. She thinks she is the one who is tough and prepared for her future adult life, but she is starting to realize that the men who are in authority hold the only power, and use it to control and exploit the women. She is starting to realize that the leaders she thought kept her community safe were actually using their power to demean and brutalize anyone who opposed them, and claiming that they were the victims of terrorism from outsiders while they are the ones perpetrating violence on others. It’s a bleak but compelling show.

From an evolutionary perspective, humans ideally need a balance between trust and suspicion. When there is too much trust, cooperation is high–but exploitation is much more likely. When there is too much suspicion, exploitation is less likely, but relationships and cooperation suffer. Healthy development means learning:

  • whom to trust
  • when and how to verify
  • how to change your mind
  • how to tolerate ambiguity

Without ever encoutering challenge, disagreement, or deception, it’s very hard to develop those skills.

Someone raised in a sheltered religious or political environment may be highly skeptical of outsiders yet far too trusting of insiders. That seems to be one of the main themes of The Testaments.

  • Do you think Mormons are better at sniffing out deception or worse?
  • How have you determined whom to trust and when to be skeptical?
  • How have you fostered these skills in your children?

Discuss.