Why do people fear one form of death over other forms?

We fear death from legal and illegal drug use, war, and guns and we do everything in our power to stop those things from being sold in the open market, but we ignore the staggering average of 41,000 deaths that occur each year via car crashes (US).

We fear new diseases more than we do old ones, even if the older disease kills more per year than the new one. We fear AIDS and HIV more than we fear getting in a car and driving. Why is that?

my favourite question on Y!Answers so far! congratulations.

i think it's all about c o n t r o l. knowing what you are up against. we fear newer diseases probably because we don't know what to expect from them (remember atypical pneumonia, chicken flu - caused hysteria because of the lack of information regarding them). the more you know about a disease, the safer you feel not necessarily because you can't contact it but because in case you do, you know what it is and how to cure it.

driving is so usual for everyone, whereas AIDS is for most people a horror story, seen from far away. plus, the idea that while i am driving i am aware of what's happening and i have the sensation (!) that i am in control. a disease in unseen, attacks without warning and initially without pain. people usually fear what they don't know.

you should also consider other factors such as:
- how many people drive a car every day, as opposed to the number of AIDS cases, drug addiction cases that you mentioned etc ? statistically, it is correct so many people people die in car accidents. i'm not saying that the situation can't be largely improved! just searching for the logic.

Think about it man, AIDS you have to live with. Car crash is instant death. Also people like to think they are safe with a seatbelt in a car accident, so it isn't as scary.

Good, thought-provoking question. Man's natural fear of change is one reason; the other is that we shy away from what we cannot control. Conflicts and car crashes are deadly, but we inately feel we CAN improve the numbers by being careful. With old diseases we KNOW we can do better from experience; we even have some cures. With new diseases, it is an open frontier.... What's to become of us...????

I don't fear death as much as the way in which I will die. I have a strange love-hate relationship with death. On the one hand I see it as a release from the pain of living, on the other hand I fear that it may come sooner than I am prepared to face it. I am still quite young and want to live but if I have to die before I am ready I wish it will at least happen in a way that is not too painful. I would hate to die from a crippling disease. The only real fear I have about death is that it will happen in a way that is too terrible for me and the people I love, the lingering death that burns you with a slow fire. I think terminally ill people should be granted the option of ending life before it gets too terrible.