Don’t Spend Your Summer Being Scared

Fear doesn’t have to be your new normal

Illustration: Laurie Rollitt

We’ve grown accustomed to being afraid. Since the 1980s, according to the sociologist Barry Glassner, Americans have lived in a state of low-level panic. Some social scientists would even describe fear as addictive, he says. While the jury’s out on that, it’s certainly contagious: If you tell me about your fears, I get them too. Then I…