This is usually money, whether  directly or indirectly, through personal information. But it’s not just hacking and social engineering methods they rely on. It’s underlying factors like fear and digital literacy. We delve into how and why swindlers can use these to manipulate you and others.

The Fear Factor

Fear is one of the strongest human emotions. It’s a key feature of our survival instinct that’s fundamental to who we are as people. Scammers intentionally play on this to override rational thinking and responses. This often pushes victims to act without proper forethought, placing them and their money or details in harm’s way. You can see the evidence in many scamming techniques.

Urgent threats: Many common scams create a sense of urgency that pressures you into acting. A message, email, or call warning of bank account closures or overdue payments puts you on the spot. This can evoke a panic response, cloud your judgement, and make you do things you normally wouldn’t. Scammers use the threat of further repercussions to make action seem like the best (or only) way forward.

Fear of missing out: A different approach relies on a gentler form of fear – the fear of missing out. Promotions for investment opportunities and time-limited deals often seem too good to be true. And they usually are. The more a scammer can get you interested in their offering, the more vulnerable you become.

Read more: Deepfake AI and why you need a safe word

The Digital Divide

Some criminals rely on people’s lack of digital ability to get what they want. Older generations are typically less familiar with the warning signs. They’re more likely to believe that a phishing email or hoax call is legitimate. The absence of an internet connection sometimes makes people vulnerable. But it can also be poor digital literacy while connected.

Scammers tend to exploit the digital divide by:

Posing as an authority or legitimate company: Verifying the identity of someone contacting you is tricky enough for most. For someone with limited knowledge of the online world, the risks are even greater. Impersonations often target people without the power to verify. This makes phishing emails, fake social media profiles, and ‘robocalls’ more likely to succeed.

Using lack of knowledge: Complexity is another way scammers pull wool over the eyes. It’s easier to deceive people unfamiliar with certain technologies and processes. Unsolicited tech support scams and fake software updates are common examples. Scammers may then sell your data on the dark web, which even the most tech-savvy people could be unaware of.

Fear and the Digital Divide combined

These two factors often work hand in hand. Many scamming techniques exploit vulnerabilities linked to both. For example, an inability to verify someone’s identity combined with an urgent threat increases the likelihood of action.

It’s always best to stay calm, seek support from someone else, and avoid making rash decisions.

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The post How scammers exploit the fear factor and society’s digital divide appeared first on Silver Magazine.

By definition, fear should be an unpleasant experience. It is our body’s natural response to danger, and it works to keep us safe through vigilance and distress. But many of us find ourselves deliberately engaging with stuff that scares us – and loving it. So why do we enjoy fear?

From horror movies to rollercoasters to unsettling Halloween décor, why do we indulge ourselves in things that create fear?

Our body’s reaction

Our minds register perceived threats through a part of the brain known as the amygdala. The amygdala tells our body it needs to prepare for danger, causing us to enter the so-called fight, flight or freeze response.

In this state, our bodies produce increased levels of adrenaline to either fight off or escape from whatever is making us scared. This adrenaline spike causes the classic physical signs of fear, such as sweating, shaking and an elevated heart rate. And once the rush is over, we’re often left feeling exhausted.

Read more: why feeling a sense of awe is good for you

The feeling of fear

Nearly everyone experiences this impulse of fight, flight, or freeze in response to fear. What varies from person to person is how we react after the feeling of fear kicks in.

Screaming, laughter and crying are among the many ways people react to fear

According to Helen Reade, a positive psychologist, the way we react to fear is personalised to our lived experiences. If we associate horror with spending time with friends, for example, we’ll have more positive reactions to stimuli such as happiness or excitement. This can explain why scary things or situations cause drastically different responses in different people. Screaming, laughter and crying are among the many ways people react to fear.

For some, being afraid is a genuinely fun experience. It all comes down to how our brains react to a scary situation. Not every perceived threat elicits a fight-or-flight response from us – our brains are smart enough to recognise that something scary in a movie can’t hurt us, for example. After the amygdala recognises a threat, our hippocampus and prefrontal cortex work together to ascertain whether or not the threat is real or imagined. If we know it’s imagined, it’s generally much easier to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Can you learn to like being scared?

This depends on what kind of fear is at play. Some causes of fear, such as trauma or genuine phobias, can make enjoying fear much harder or even impossible.

If you’re able, and you want to build up that horror movie immunity, it comes down to two simple things: safety and control.
A big reason why some people love to be scared and others hate it is our risk assessments of scary situations. Take skydiving as an example. Those who often take the leap are familiar with the risks and safety of the situation – the pros and cons. They can then weigh these up in their minds more quickly and easily than someone who has never skydived.

The same is true of horror movies. If you watch tons of scary movies, you’re more used to the fact that nothing from them is real – after all, none of the monsters have ever actually come after you. This makes you more capable of enjoying the movie than someone who barely watches horror and is likely to be more on edge if you whip out the old Freddy Kruger videos.

To enjoy fear, do you just need to scare yourself more?

The short answer is kind-of! There’s a method, known as flooding, which helps your brain to reassociate scary stuff with safety. Reade explains this as a way to move past potential panic in a safe space. To keep with the horror movie example, you can ‘flood’ yourself by watching a bunch of horror movies from somewhere safe, maybe curled up on your sofa while hiding behind a pillow.

…it’s all about your mind’s associations with the source of fear… this is what decides your relationship with fear.

By linking the scares with a safe place, your mind can slowly begin to understand that you have nothing to fear. You may then be able to start reassociating this kind of fear with more positive things.

This means you can engage in enough scary stuff so that you grow to like it – it’s all about your mind’s associations with the source of fear. Does your mind associate a rollercoaster with a fun thrill or with uncontrollable speeds? This is what decides your relationship with fear.

Still not a fan of scary? Why not try something a little more zen

Not so scary now? Some readers want to improve their scare tolerance, while others just want to finally understand what thrill-seekers are on about.

Regardless, keeping ideas of safety and control in your mind can help you better manage your response to fear – at least recreationally. So whether you plan on trying out flooding, or you are just taking pointers for your next Halloween movie night, remember that your relationship with fear is yours to control. Why not take fear by the horns and see where it takes you?

Aiden Winn

Aiden is an editorial and production staffer at Title Media. He’s constantly looking for opportunities to have fun and get creative, whether it be art, baking, storytelling… you name it!

The post Some of us love the scare, but why do we enjoy fear? appeared first on Silver Magazine.

In an informal study carried out by Silver Magazine, over 85% of respondents said they had been experiencing vivid, disturbing dreams since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and particularly since we’ve been in ‘lockdown’.

So if you’re one of those, don’t worry – you’re definitely not alone. And it’s important to note that you need them.

“Dreams are essential for the health of our mind and our body. We all dream, but not everyone can easily recall them,” explains Steven.

“Studies have shown that if people are deprived of dreaming sleep for a few days, they very quickly start to hallucinate and show psychotic symptoms.”

So what are people dreaming about?

We asked readers to tell us a bit about their dreams, and there’s some common threads through many of them, such as fighting wars, escaping situations, having sex with inappropriate people, and in many cases, dreaming about people who have long since died.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Hunting and foraging for food and water were the main reasons for venturing out. Being in lockdown subconsciously activates these ancient instincts[/perfectpullquote]

Rose Collis says, “The other night, I dreamed I was involved in a sort of all-female ‘Great Escape’ escape from the Nazis – except there was a lot more killing… I saw other women having their heads shot to smithereens. The sense of the danger I was in was so palpable – real life and death stuff.”

Roman Hunter is another one fighting the fight. “Mine have become action packed and lots of dead relatives helping out, very odd.”

Steven says that dreaming during lockdown throws our minds back into cave-dwelling days, and not just at night.

“Being forced to stay at home throws our minds back to our remote ancestors, who lived in caves for safety from predators and protection against a hostile natural environment.

“Hunting and foraging for food and water were the main reasons for venturing out. Being in lockdown subconsciously activates these ancient instincts, making shopping for essentials and getting exercise potentially very stressful.”

Survival of the fittest

“Our competitive drive will also mean that as the restrictions continue, our basic instincts will sharpen. As time passes, some may even feel that the police are like ‘predators’ to be avoided, whilst our survival instincts drive us to get better at securing resources. The police themselves may even find that a predatory instinct kicks in, as they patrol their beat seeking out people breaking the rules.

“Our brains and minds will anticipate these instinctive pressures, and prepare us for adapting to the situation by increasing the intensity and quality of our dreams.”

So our dreams are a way of limbering up our survival instincts, and important for our ability to survive. It’s a very primal activity, but the mad dreams are actually keeping us sane?

“Yes, because it’s a natural and healthy reaction to a very stressful and novel situation. Your mind and body are opposite sides of the same coin; what affects one affects the other. To keep in healthy balance, your mind and body need to communicate. We experience this communication in our dreams. Underneath the images and symbols, our brains are adapting at a neurological level to the new challenges presented by COVID-19.”

Can we diagnose our own mental health using our dream material?

“Definitely. But be careful! All of our personal complexes populate our dreams, appearing like people we may know in outer life. Sometimes they are exactly what they appear to be. But just as often they represent parts of ourselves that we’ve either ‘projected’ onto people we know, or ‘introjected’ by unconsciously borrowing their image to represent a part of ourselves.

“Knowing how to approach our dreams is very important. Accept it as normal, but look closely at the content of your dreams and learn to take them as natural facts written in a symbolic language. If you respect your dreams, your psyche will respect ‘you’. Keep focused on the outer world, but acknowledge your rich, inherited inner life.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Nightmares are part of the normal turn-over in the mind and brain that is necessary for health[/perfectpullquote]

The majority of people we talked to reported having vivid, unsettling dreams during lockdown, or nightmares. They’re feeling impending doom, fighting battles, and waking up exhausted. Is there any way to manage this, or avoid having such intense dreaming experiences?

“This depends on the cause. Nightmares are part of the normal turn-over in the mind and brain that is necessary for health. Nightmares can be caused by illness or disease; indeed, by anything that affects the proper functioning of the brain.

“Nightmares caused by trauma in the past or stress occurring in the present can, if they are persistent, be dealt with through the help of a suitably trained and experienced therapist. Many people take the challenge of embarking on their own inner work and enter on a journey of self-discovery by self-analysing their dreams and nightmares.”

When will it end?

So sometimes you need to shine the light on something to make the darkness disappear. How about once lockdown is lifted and life gets back to some kind of normality – will this crazy dreaming stop then?

“Yes, but there will be a period of readjustment, and your psyche and your brain will need to re-calibrate to the change. It’ll be quite normal for this to take some time, or even in a very few cases, persist over a longer period.

“Meanwhile, sleep is absolutely essential for health, and dreams are a part of this. Get the sleep you need for physical and mental health. And enjoy the rich dream narratives your psyche produces as the background to your conscious mental life.”

Huge thanks for this insight to Steven T Richards FIPSA FNCP, Depth Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Respiratory Psychophysiologist.

You can find Steve and his wife Pauline, who works in the same field, on the Jung to Live By Youtube channel, offering depth psychological resources.

Sam Harrington-Lowe

Sam is Silver’s founder and editor-in-chief. She’s largely responsible for organising all the things, but still finds time to do the odd bit of writing. Not enough though. Send help.

The post Having crazy dreams during lockdown? This is what it means appeared first on Silver Magazine.