Around this time of year, when both elections and Halloween are on everyone’s mind, it becomes pretty obvious that people will worry about anything if “the right” people tell them they should be afraid. 

Following a drug bust in Los Angeles where a man was caught trying to smuggle fentanyl by disguising it as candy, there’s been a wave of “warnings” from news organizations that parents should be on the lookout for the deadly narcotic in their children’s Halloween haul — as if drug dealers will, for some reason, be handing out free samples of their product to unsuspecting children. 

Such concerns are nothing new. Similar warnings seem to crop up nearly every year around mid-October. When the legalization of marijuana was first passed in Colorado, for example, local authorities issued fearmongering “reports” that trick-or-treaters were, ostensibly, at risk of receiving THC-infused edibles from strangers. 

Because, you know, drug dealers (and drug users, for that matter) are well known for giving out their products for free to completely random children. 

Of course, extensive research has exposed such repeated concerns of contaminated Halloween candy as little more than hysteria — and stories of past horrors largely amount to nothing more than urban legends run amok. For example, we’ve all heard the debunked story about evildoers supposedly placing razor blades in otherwise innocent-looking apples back in the 1980s. (What kind of monster would hand out apples to trick or treaters anyway?) 

Such recurring fears are simply not grounded in reality. Joel Best, Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware, has data stretching as far back as the 1950s, and he has yet to find any incidents of children being seriously harmed by malevolent plots to contaminate trick or treat candy.

This year’s fentanyl scare, however, is a reminder of how desperate many people are to find something to fear. As it turns out, we have a love affair with being scared — and not just the kind of fright we get when watching slasher flicks or telling each other ghost stories. We’re biologically wired to be anxious, fearful or downright terrified at much of the world. And as a species, we’re pretty good at it — especially in today’s environment of social media doom-scrolling, cable news, and never-ending political cycles. 

After all, there’s a reason election season is overrun with apocalyptic political adverts designed to terrify voters into casting ballots: It works. 

For weeks before election day, commercial breaks are dominated by doomsaying narrators who warn us about the looming death of our democracy as a grainy black-and-white image of some politician from the opposite party is paraded across our screen. We’re bombarded with dire warnings that this grand experiment in human freedom is but one election away from crashing into the ashbin of history as a new world of tyranny and oppression is foisted upon us by our political foes. 

Forget sex… Fear sells way better. And the marketers in politics, news and social media know how to use that fear to get your clicks, grab your attention or earn your vote. 

Whether it be some political action committee warning you that Joe Lombardo will outlaw abortion (which he can’t do) or a news anchor telling you drug dealers plan on handing out fentanyl-laced candy (which is something no one will do), using fear to engage and motivate the public is commonplace in our fast-paced, information-packed modern world. Everyone is competing for your attention — and few things earn it as well as some headline that assures you “the end is near.” 

To be sure, there are plenty of serious things about which we should be concerned in today’s world. But the hysteria used to grab our attention by politicians, pundits and even many media organizations is often melodramatic hyperbole — transparently designed to sow anxiety for the sake of ratings, votes or retweets. 

The fear, animosity and discontent such tactics build is strangely at odds with how much progress our society has actually made at creating a safer, more prosperous world. After all, while there are serious threats to some of our individual rights and civic traditions, we’re actually living in a world that — judging by some of the most important metrics — is far better than it ever has been before. 

Today, more people live above the poverty line than any time in recorded history. Lifespans have increased globally for decades. And things like natural disasters and wars have claimed fewer lives and caused less human destruction in recent decades than they did a mere century ago — those Russian T72 tanks rolling through parts of Ukraine notwithstanding. 

And yet, even when we have it “pretty good,” millions of years of evolution can’t help but encourage our brains to find something about which we should feel anxious if not fearful. And there are plenty of actors willing to prey off that natural human instinct so they can pander for our votes, profit off our outrage or simply garner “clicks” with doomsday-headlines. 

That’s not to say there aren’t serious issues at stake in this (or any other) election cycle — or that taking candy from strangers doesn’t carry some level of inherent risk. But it’s worth remembering that, like the annual panic over drug-laced treats around Halloween, much of what is being peddled by partisans, pundits and cable news outrage-artists is either ill-informed nonsense or intentionally manufactured for someone’s political profit. 

No wonder anxiety is an increasingly common mental health concern nowadays. After all, we live in a political and social environment that deliberately manufactures it in commercial-size quantities on a daily basis. And unfortunately, because we’re hardwired to consume fear and anxiety the way we do, much of the public drinks it up as if they were a cultist being offered Kool-Aid at some weekend retreat. 

Michael Schaus is a communications and branding expert based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and founder of Schaus Creative LLC — an agency dedicated to helping organizations, businesses and activists tell their story and motivate change. He has more than a decade of experience in public affairs commentary, having worked as a news director, columnist, political humorist, and most recently as the director of communications for a public policy think tank. Follow him at SchausCreative.com or on Twitter at @schausmichael.