JACK THE RIPPER BOOKS BY SIMON WEBB

HISTORIES BY SIMON WEBB DURHAM HISTORIAN
THERE ARE THREE SIMON WEBB'S WRITING HISTORIES
THIS IS THE SELF PUBLISHED SIMON WEBB

About the Author
Simon Webb lives near the historic English city of Durham, and has published over fifty books, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Publishes with TLP  The Langley Press



Absinthe Jack: Was Ernest Dowson Jack the Ripper? 

Nov 30, 2017 by Simon Webb
Aesthete, decadent poet, misogynist and violent drunk, Ernest Dowson has been long-listed as a Jack the Ripper suspect for nearly twenty years. Simon Webb's new book takes a fresh look at the evidence, and examines the possibility that Dowson's consumption of epic quantities of absinthe may have turned him from a woman-hating brawler into the terror of Whitechapel.



American Jack: Jack the Ripper and the United States 

Jun 30, 2017 by Simon Webb
The ultimate Ripper collection runs to over 550 pages and includes four complete books: 'American Jack', about the Ripper's links to the United States, books on the suspects Francis Thompson and Ernest Dowson, and 'Severin', a novel based on the story of the well-known suspect George Chapman. Among other suspects covered in the book are Francis Tumblety, James Maybrick, Prince Albert Victor, Neill Cream, James Kelly and Robert D'Onston Stephenson. 'A Jack the Ripper Omnibus' also includes new material that has never been published before.



Severin: A Tale of Jack the Ripper 
Jan 31, 2016 by Simon Webb
George Chapman, also known as Severin Klosowski, was a London poisoner who was hanged in 1903. During his trial, a number of people began to suspect that he was, or had been, Jack the Ripper. These people included Frederick Abberline, who had been an important detective on the Ripper case back in 1888. Abberline became convinced that Chapman was his man. This book takes Abberline's theory and runs with it.

Jack the Poet: Was Francis Thompson Jack the Ripper?

 Sep 30, 2017 by Simon Webb
Long regarded as a possible Jack the Ripper suspect, the Victorian poet Francis Thompson lived in London at the time of the Whitechapel murders, and may have had motive, means and opportunity to commit at least some of those horrific crimes. At one time, he even lived with a prostitute who subsequently disappeared. Considering known facts about Thompson's life and personality, and searching for clues in the darker corners of his poetry, Simon Webb's new book offers a balanced view of the case for Jack the Poet. Simon has also written 'American Jack', about the Ripper's links to the United States, and 'Severin', a Ripper novel.

A Jack the Ripper Omnibus 

Nov 30, 2017 by Simon Webb
The ultimate Ripper collection runs to over 550 pages and includes four complete books: 'American Jack', about the Ripper's links to the United States, books on the suspects Francis Thompson and Ernest Dowson, and 'Severin', a novel based on the story of the well-known suspect George Chapman. Among other suspects covered in the book are Francis Tumblety, James Maybrick, Prince Albert Victor, Neill Cream, James Kelly and Robert D'Onston Stephenson. 'A Jack the Ripper Omnibus' also includes new material that has never been published before.

LAMBTON WORM AND LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM

The Lambton Worm

Paperback – November 28, 2019 

by Simon Webb  (Author)

The tale of the 'Famous Lambton Worm' is the best-known of the many monster stories of the North of England. Simon Webb's book re-tells the story, speculates on its origins, and compares John Lambton's Worm to other local dragons such as the Sockburn Worm and the Laidley Worm of Spindlestone Heugh.Illustrated: includes the complete text of the Lambton Worm song.

Young Lambton loved a spot of fishing but when he cast his line into the lake, he wasn't expecting his catch to be a fat, slime-strung, squirming worm. And that was just the very beginning of his problems....
The terrible tale of the Lambton Worm is written by is written by poet and children's author Heather Harrison and told here by Tony Wilson.
This is just one of the tales from Springboard Stories, a magazine for primary teachers with stories at its heart.

IT IS ALSO THE BASIS OF THE KEN RUSSEL'S MOVIE BASED ON BRAM STOKERS 
STORY LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM

THIS SIMON WEBB wrote the history of the 
1919 General Strike in Britain 

About the Author

Simon Webb is the author of a number of non-fiction books, ranging from academic works on education to popular history. He works as a consultant on the subject of capital punishment to television companies and filmmakers and also writes for various magazines and newspapers; including the Times Educational Supplement, Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

British Concentration Camps: A Brief History from 1900-1975

by Simon Webb

For many of us, the very expression ‘Concentration Camp’ is inextricably linked to Nazi Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust. The idea of British concentration camps is a strange and unsettling one. It was however the British, rather than the Germans, who were the chief driving force behind the development and use of concentration camps in the Twentieth Century.

The operation by the British army of concentration camps during the Boer War led to the deaths of tens of thousands of children from starvation and disease. More recently, slave-labourers confined in a nationwide network of camps played an integral role in Britain’s post-war prosperity. In 1947, a quarter of the country’s agricultural workforce were prisoners in labour camps.

BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE 

The Suffragette Bombers: Britain's Forgotten Terrorists

by Simon Webb

In the years leading up to the First World War, the United Kingdom was subjected to a ferocious campaign of bombing and arson. Those conducting this terrorist offensive were members of the Women's Social and Political Union; better known as the suffragettes. 

The targets for their attacks ranged from St Paul's Cathedral and the Bank of England in London to theatres and churches in Ireland. The violence, which included several attempted assassinations, culminated in June 1914 with an explosion in Westminster Abbey.

Simon Webb explores the way in which the suffragette bombers have been airbrushed from history, leaving us with a distorted view of the struggle for female suffrage. Not only were the suffragettes far more aggressive than is generally known, but there exists the very real and surprising possibility that their militant activities actually delayed, rather than hastened, the granting of the parliamentary vote to British women.

The Real World of Victorian Steampunk: Steam Planes and Radiophones

by Simon Webb

In the last few decades, steampunk has blossomed from being a rather obscure and little-known subgenre of science fiction into a striking and distinctive style of fashion, art, design and even music. It is in the written word however that steampunk has its roots and in this book Simon Webb explores and examines the real inventions which underpin the fantasy. In doing so, he reveals a world unknown to most people today.

The Real World of Victorian Steampunk shows the Victorian era to have been a surprising place; one of steam-powered airplanes, fax machines linking Moscow and St Petersburg, steam cars traveling at over 100 mph, electric taxis and wireless telephones. It is, in short, the nineteenth century as you have never before seen it; a steampunk extravaganza of anachronistic technology and unfamiliar gadgets. Imagine Europe spanned by a mechanical internet; a telecommunication system of clattering semaphore towers capable of transmitting information across the continent in a matter of minutes. Consider too, the fact that a steam plane the size of a modern airliner took off in England in 1894.

Drawing entirely on contemporary sources, we see how little-known developments in technology have been used as the basis for so many steampunk narratives. From seminal novels such as The Difference Engine, through to the steampunk fantasy of Terry Pratchett’s later works, this book shows that steampunk is at least as much solid fact as it is whimsical fiction.

The Analogue Revolution: Communication Technology 1901–1914

by Simon Webb

We are all familiar with the digital revolution that has swept across the developed world in recent years. It has ushered in an age of smartphones, laptop computers and ready access to the internet. A little over a century ago, a similar explosion took place in the field of information and communication technology. This revolution was not digital but analogue, and it saw the birth of mass media such as newspapers, cinema and radio.

In The Analogue Revolution, Simon Webb examines the impact that developments in printing, photography, wireless telegraphy, gramophones and moving pictures had in the years preceding the First World War, and shows how the modern world was shaped by the media used to record it. From the first mass-circulation newspapers to cameras so cheap that everybody could afford them, from early experiments in radio broadcasting to cinema films in color, The Analogue Revolution charts the history of the first information revolution of the twentieth century. The parallels with the modern world are uncanny, ranging from anxiety about the use of new technology to distribute pornography, to worries about children losing interest in reading because they prefer to watch films.

For anybody wishing to understand the modern world, this book is an essential primer in the nature of information revolutions and the way in which they affect the world.

Post-War Childhood: Growing up in the not-so-friendly ‘Baby Boomer’ Years 

by Simon Webb (Author)

Many British baby boomers are very nostalgic about a supposed golden age; a vanished world when children were generally freer, happier and healthier than they are now. They wandered about all day; only returning home at teatime when they were hungry. Nobody worried about health and safety or 'stranger danger' in those days and no serious harm ever befell children as a result.

In Post-War Childhood, Simon Webb examines the facts and figures behind the myth of children's carefree lives in the post-war years, finding that such things as the freedom to roam the streets and fields came at a terrible price. In 1965, for example, despite there being far fewer cars in Britain, 45 times as many children were knocked down and killed on the roads as now die in this way each year.

Simon Webb presents a 'warts and all' portrait of British childhood in the years following the end of the Second World War. He demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, it was by any measure a far more hazardous and less pleasant time to be a child, than is the case in the twenty-first century.

The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist

Quaker Comet: Benjamin Lay: Anti-Slavery Pioneer 

by Roberts Vaux (Author), Simon Webb (Editor)

Born near Colchester in 1681, Benjamin Lay overcame disability to become an outspoken early opponent of slavery, both in Barbados and later in Pennsylvania.'Quaker Comet' includes the pioneering biography of 'Little Benjamin' by Roberts Vaux, an introduction, notes, and autobiographical extracts from Lay's 1737 book on the evils of the African slave trade. The book ends with a selection of early texts relating to Quakerism and slavery.

The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist 

by Marcus Rediker  (Author)

The little-known story of an eighteenth-century Quaker dwarf who fiercely attacked slavery and imagined a new, more humane way of life

In The Fearless Benjamin Lay, renowned historian Marcus Rediker chronicles the transatlantic life and times of a singular man—a Quaker dwarf who demanded the total, unconditional emancipation of all enslaved Africans around the world. Mocked and scorned by his contemporaries, Lay was unflinching in his opposition to slavery, often performing colorful guerrilla theater to shame slave masters, insisting that human bondage violated the fundamental principles of Christianity. He drew on his ideals to create a revolutionary way of life, one that embodied the proclamation “no justice, no peace.”

Lay was born in 1682 in Essex, England. His philosophies, employments, and places of residence—spanning England, Barbados, Philadelphia, and the open seas—were markedly diverse over the course of his life. He worked as a shepherd, glove maker, sailor, and bookseller. His worldview was an astonishing combination of Quakerism, vegetarianism, animal rights, opposition to the death penalty, and abolitionism.

While in Abington, Philadelphia, Lay lived in a cave-like dwelling surrounded by a library of two hundred books, and it was in this unconventional abode where he penned a fiery and controversial book against bondage, which Benjamin Franklin published in 1738. Always in motion and ever confrontational, Lay maintained throughout his life a steadfast opposition to slavery and a fierce determination to make his fellow Quakers denounce it, which they finally began to do toward the end of his life.

With passion and historical rigor, Rediker situates Lay as a man who fervently embodied the ideals of democracy and equality as he practiced a unique concoction of radicalism nearly three hundred years ago. Rediker resurrects this forceful and prescient visionary, who speaks to us across the ages and whose innovative approach to activism is a gift, transforming how we consider the past and how we might imagine the future.

Review

“Rediker provides a valuable addition to abolitionist historiography. . . . A concise, solid biography of ‘the first revolutionary abolitionist,’ a diminutive man who was decades ahead of his time.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Rediker adroitly describes nuances of the Quaker faith’s evolution. . . . Lay’s farsightedness and extensive advocacy deserves to be remembered.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Highly recommended, especially for public and college library biography collections.”

—Midwest Book Review

“Lay, a lover of books, would have appreciated this one, less for the praise lavished on him than the attention given his message. As Mr. Rediker says, ‘Benjamin’s prophecy speaks to our time.’”

—The Pittsburgh Post–Gazette

“Admirers of Marcus Rediker’s splendid The Slave Ship will be delighted by this historian’s new book. Sailor, pioneer of guerilla theater, and a man who would stop at nothing to make his fellow human beings share his passionate outrage against slavery, Benjamin Lay has long needed a modern biographer worthy of him, and now he has one.”

—Adam Hochschild

“A modern biography of the radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay has long been overdue. With the sure hand of an eminent historian of the disfranchised, Marcus Rediker has brought to life the wide-ranging activism of this extraordinary Quaker, vegetarian dwarf in a richly crafted book. In fully recovering Lay’s revolutionary abolitionist vision, Rediker reveals its ongoing significance for our world.”

—Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

“The unswerving eighteenth-century abolitionist Benjamin Lay, maligned when not ignored for many generations, has at last found his sympathetic biographer. In this captivating, must-read book, Marcus Rediker shows that Lay’s disfigured body contained a mind of steel and a heart overflowing with compassion for victims of the Atlantic slave trade. Lay’s place in the annals of American reform is now secure. If you’re ready to have your mind changed about received wisdom on the eccentric, lonely early abolitionist who blazed the way for later antislavery stalwarts, read this brilliantly researched and passionately written book.”

—Gary Nash, author of Warner Mifflin, Unflinching Quaker Abolitionist

About the Author

Marcus Rediker (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and Senior Research Fellow at the Collège d’études mondiales in Paris. He is the author of numerous prize-winning books, including The Many-Headed Hydra (with Peter Linebaugh), The Slave Ship, and The Amistad Rebellion. He produced the award-winning documentary film Ghosts of Amistad (Tony Buba, director), about the popular memory of the Amistad rebellion of 1839 in contemporary Sierra Leone.

KIM SIMMONDS & SAVOY BROWN LIVE

DUH OH

Inequality is bad for society, economic prosperity good

WHICH IS WHY THE PARASITE CLASS NEEDS TO BE EXPROPRIATED AND OUR COMMON WEALTH SHARED COLLECTIVELY 

by Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

Prof. Dr. Jan Delhey is the first author the Chair for Macrosociology at the University of Magdeburg Credit: Harald Krieg

Rich countries vary a lot when it comes to health and social problems. A comparison of social ills ranging from intentional homicides to obesity rates in 40 rich societies shows that Asian and European countries fare much better than Anglophone and Latin American countries. The most problem-ridden countries are Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and the United States. The positive end of the list is headed by Japan, South Korea and Singapore, followed by Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Germany ranks 15th just behind Austria. While economic inequality is associated with more social ills, economic prosperity dampens them.

These are the results of a study conducted by a team of sociologists at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OvGU) in Germany. Prof. Jan Delhey and Leonie Steckermeier (MA) investigate for 40 high-income countries from all world regions, whether income inequality and national prosperity can help understand why some countries are more problem-ridden than others.

In a cross-national comparison, countries with a bigger income gap between rich and poor indeed have more social ills. Inequality is bad for society as it goes along with weaker social bonds between people, which in turn makes health and social problems more likely. At the same time, richer countries have less social ills. Economic prosperity goes along with stronger social bonds in society and thereby makes health and social problem less likely. "This is the main reason behind the geographic pattern we found, with social ills being more widespread in the Americas and the Anglophone New World countries, and less widespread in European and particularly Asian countries," explains Jan Delhey, first author of the research paper.

The good news is that in most countries social ills improved somewhat between 2000 and 2015, although it is difficult to pin down why. In Europe at least, rising prosperity seems to have led to better societies with less social ills, but for the non-European countries it remains unclear why levels of social ills changed. "This shows that other factors beyond income inequality and economic prosperity play a role in the development of social ills, too. Still, our results prompt scholars as well as the public to re-think the widespread negative image of contemporary society. In many countries, there is small progress towards a better society with less social ills," explains Leonie Steckermeier, co-author of the study.

The empirical analysis was based on a set of six social ills, namely low life expectancy, infant mortality, and obesity as health issues, and intentional homicides, teenage pregnancy, and imprisonment rate as social problems. The data were compiled from international sources such as the Worldbank and the World Health Organization for the years from 2000 to 2015. The structure of the compiled dataset allows to compare health and social problems between countries and across time. The research was carried out as part of the project "Inequality, Status Anxiety and Social Ills" at the Chair for Macrosociology at the OvGU and funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG).

Income inequality fuels status anxiety and sexualisation, research shows

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More information: Jan Delhey et al, Social Ills in Rich Countries: New Evidence on Levels, Causes, and Mediators, Social Indicators Research (2019). DOI: 10.1007/s11205-019-02244-3

Journal information: Social Indicators Research 

Provided by Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

I POSTED THIS BECAUSE OF THE NIFTY NASA GIF 

For hottest planet, a major meltdown, study shows

by Pat Brennan, NASA

Artist's rendering of a "hot Jupiter" called KELT-9b, the hottest known exoplanet - s

Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems face a perfect storm 

by Lancaster University

Fish and diver on a reef Credit: Nick Graham

A combination of climate change, extreme weather and pressure from local human activity is causing a collapse in global biodiversity and ecosystems across the tropics, new research shows.

The study, published today, mapped over 100 locations where tropical forests and coral reefs have been affected by climate extremes such as hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, droughts and fires. It provides an overview of how these very diverse ecosystems are being threatened by a combination of ongoing climate changes, increasingly extreme weather and damaging local human activities.

The international team of researchers argue that only international action to decrease CO2 emissions can reverse this trend.

Lead researcher Dr. Filipe França from the Embrapa Amazônia Oriental in Brazil and Lancaster University said: "Tropical forests and coral reefs are very important for global biodiversity, so it is extremely worrying that they are increasingly affected by both climate disturbances and human activities".

"Many local threats to tropical forests and coral reefs, such as deforestation, overfishing, and pollution, reduce the diversity and functioning of these ecosystems. This in turn can make them less able to withstand or recover from extreme weather. Our research highlights the extent of the damage which is being done to ecosystems and wildlife in the tropics by these interacting threats."

Dr. Cassandra E. Benkwitt, a marine ecologist from Lancaster University, said: "Climate change is causing more intense and frequent storms and marine heatwaves. For coral reefs, such extreme events reduce live coral cover and cause long-lasting changes to both coral and fish communities, compounding local threats from poor water quality and overfishing. Although the long-term trajectory for reefs will depend on how extreme events interact with these local stressors, even relatively pristine reefs are vulnerable to both climate change and extreme weather."

Tropical forest species are also being threatened by the increasing frequency of extreme hurricanes.

Dr. Guadalupe Peralta from Canterbury University in New Zealand said: "A range of post-hurricane ecological consequences have been recorded in tropical forests: the destruction of plants by these weather extremes affects the animals, birds and insects that rely on them for food and shelter."

In some regions, such as the Caribbean Islands, extreme weather events have decimated wildlife, reducing numbers by more than half.

"We are starting to see another wave of global extinctions of tropical birds as forest fragmentation reduces populations to critical levels", explained Dr. Alexander Lees, from Manchester Metropolitan University.

The combination of higher temperatures with longer and more severe dry seasons has also led to the spread of unprecedented and large-scale wildfires in tropical forests.

Dr. Filipe França said that at the end of 2015, Santarém in the Brazilian state of Pará was one of the epicentres of that year's El Niño impacts. "The region experienced a severe drought and extensive forest fires, and I was very sad to see the serious consequences for forest wildlife."

The drought also affected the forests ability to recover from the fires. Dung beetles play a vital role in forest recovery by spreading seeds. The study provides novel evidence that this seed spreading activity plummeted in those forests most impacted by the dry conditions during the 2015-2016 El Niño.

Coral reefs were also critically damaged by the same El Niño, explains Professor Nick Graham from Lancaster University.

He said: "The 2015-16 coral bleaching event was the worst ever recorded, with many locations globally losing vast tracts of valuable corals. Worryingly, these global bleaching events are becoming more frequent due to the rise in ocean temperature from global warming."

The last part of the study emphasizes that urgent action and novel conservation strategies are needed to ameliorate the impacts of the multiple threats to tropical forests and coral reefs.

Dr. Joice Ferreira from Embrapa Amazônia Oriental said: "To achieve successful climate-mitigation strategies, we need 'action-research' approaches that engage local people and institutions and respect the local needs and diverse socio-ecological conditions in the tropics".

The scientists caution that managing tropical ecosystems locally may not be enough if we do not tackle global climate change issues.

They stress the urgent need for all nations to act together if we really want to conserve tropical forests and coral reefs for future generations.

The research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, was carried out by 11 scientists from 8 universities and research institutions in Brazil, United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Corals in murky water less affected by temperature stress, research finds

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More information: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0116

Journal information: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

SYSTEMIC INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

Similar survival of African-American and white men with prostate cancer in an equal-access health care system

AMERICAN INSTITUTIONAL RACISM AND ITS SYSTEMIC GENOCIDE AGAINST AFRO AMERICANS

by Wiley

Micrograph showing prostatic acinar adenocarcinoma (the most common form of prostate cancer) Credit: Wikipedia

Among men with prostate cancer who received care from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Health System, an equal-access health care system, African American men did not have more advanced disease at the time of diagnosis or die earlier than white men, unlike trends seen in the greater U.S. population of patients with prostate cancer. The findings are published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

African American men in the general U.S. population are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as non-Hispanic white men. To examine whether access to health care may play a role in this disparity, a team led by Brent Rose, MD, of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System, analyzed information on more than 20 million veterans who receive care through the VA Health System. The analysis included 60,035 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2000 and 2015: 30.3 percent were African American and 69.7 percent were non-Hispanic white.

The researchers found that African American men were not more likely to experience delays in diagnosis and care. Also, African American men were not more likely to present with more advanced disease. Finally, African American men were not more likely to die from their disease. These outcomes for African American men were seen even though they were more likely to live in lower-income areas.

The findings indicate that African American men who receive equitable screening and treatment can expect to have relatively similar outcomes as white men. Access to high-quality medical care may help address some of the racial disparities seen among men diagnosed with the disease.

"These results suggest that poorer outcomes for African American men with prostate cancer may not be a foregone conclusion. With smart public policy choices, we may be able to reduce or even eliminate disparities and achieve equal outcomes for all men with prostate cancer," said Dr. Rose.

African Americans experience longer delays between diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer

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More information: CANCER (2020). DOI: 10.1002/cncr.32666

Journal information: Cancer 

Study finds presence of another person diminishes fear responses in women

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONING FIGHT OR FLIGHT INSTINCT ACTIVATED CONTINUOUSLY DUE TO CONSTANT THREAT ENVIRONMENT OF PATRIARCHY

by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team with several members from the University of Wurzburg and one from Peking University has found that women respond less strongly to aversive sounds if there is another person nearby. In their paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes experiments they conducted with female volunteers and what they learned from them.

Scientists have learned how to make direct measurements of a person's experience of fear. Instead of asking volunteers in experiments to give a rating to their fear levels, researchers can affix sensors to the skin and measure chemical responses. The technology is called skin conductance response (SCR). Scientists have found that when people are aroused, whether sexually or fearfully, chemicals are produced that make their way to the surface of the skin. SCR sensors apply a small electrical charge to the skin and use it to measure changes in skin conductivity due to arousal chemicals—the higher the conductivity, the higher the degree of arousal—or the more fear that a person is experiencing.

To learn more about how the presence of another person might impact fear levels in women, the researchers asked 97 female volunteers to sit at a desk and listen to scary noises via headphones while wearing an SCR sensor. The researchers tested the volunteers by playing a variety of sounds, some of which were intended to elicit a fear response, such as a person screaming. They played the noises when the volunteers were either sitting alone or when there was another anonymous person present nearby. The researchers also varied characteristics of the other person such as their gender and race—and they also asked each of the volunteers to rate their level of fear on a manual scale.

The data from both the written responses and the SCR showed that the women experienced less fear when there was another person present—even if they did not know that person. It also showed that the effect was stronger when the volunteer judged the nearby person as dissimilar to themselves regardless of their gender or race. According to the researchers, the results indicate that humans instinctively put themselves on higher alert when alone.

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More information: Yanyan Qi et al. The mere physical presence of another person reduces human autonomic responses to aversive sounds, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2241

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B