but while a tendency toward high anxiety leads to…

Page 172, but while a tendency toward high anxiety leads to an increased mortality risk, those with abnormally, low anxiety also have higher death rates. Low anxiety reduces the likelihood that individuals will seek help in the presence of a threat, or take prudent action to avoid it.

— from The Landing (Death) · Emotional by Leonard mlodinow

In the book

That one fear, alone among our fears, is worth keeping, because it can be answered. And there is even a cost to having no fear at all: those with abnormally low anxiety, who never take the warnings seriously, actually have higher mortality, because they stop seeking help and heeding the gauges. Then there is grief — the turbulence none of us escapes, and the one I most want to prepare you for, because no one prepared me. — The Landing (Death)

And here is the surprise: anxiety is both bad and good. A little of it is essential to survival; people with abnormally low anxiety actually die at higher rates, because they do not take prudent action against real threats. The aim is not zero anxiety. — The Heart in the Cockpit (Emotion/Awe/Anxiety/Regret/Empathy)

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