FEAR AND RELATIONSHIPS
Fear is big. It's bigger than we could have imagined.
FEAR AND RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships are harmed by a vicious circle of distrust, judgement, and fear
Fearful individuals judge more and empathize less.

Fear can trigger a type of self defence mode, where individuals begin to feel less empathetic and are more likely to judge others. A judgemental environment can feed into reduced trust, and an increased fear of the spotlight.
28% of people who feel persistent fear said fear makes them more judgemental and less empathetic towards others
36% of people who feel persistent fear said fear makes them trust others less
Fear erodes trust. 

One of the biggest casualties of fear is our sense of trust in others. Particularly because we fear judgement. And when this reduced trust is coupled with unclear communication, employees grow suspicious that there is a conspiracy to be uncovered. 
Quote: Fluff makes it sound like there's a conspiracy to be uncovered...people completely panic...announce it straight away. Say what it is and what it isn't
But, individuals who feel persistent fear tend to be more open and collaborative. 

With reduced trust, you might expect that individuals who feel persistent fear to close themselves off to others, but we found they are actually much more open about almost all topics.

In our experiment, we also saw that individuals with persistent fear were more likely to collaborate when playing Prisoners' Dilemma. Showing they may be more collaborative by default.
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Fear can make people judgmental and defensive, and if unaddressed can create a vicious circle of distrust within teams. There’s an interesting side effect too - fearful people are more collaborative, perhaps they feel they have less to lose?

Now you've seen how fear can impact key parts of our working lives, read on to find out how to harness it for good...