ABSTRACT
One could ask whether the increased compliance of people who first experience fear and then see its source is gone results from the specific dynamics of emotion or from the very fact of acting under fear. Psychology of social influence is by no means the only domain where the experience of the rapid emotional dynamics could be of importance. The emotion of fear launches reactions aimed at stopping all current actions and at the same time increasing cautiousness toward external surroundings – standing, or running away. Because in most cases fear appears when the subject feels endangered, these kinds of reaction are usually adequate. A see-saw goes up and down, and this sudden change of opposite directions is in its nature. In the experimental research of emotion dynamics, it is nearly always assumed that an emotion appears, quickly reaches its peak intensity, and then gradually subsides.
