The Gift Of Fear

The Gift Of Fear is a guide to understanding how your fear and instincts about other people can protect you by showing you how to recognize and understand the warning signs that criminals and violent people exhibit before they strike.

Criminals know that if they can get you to let your guard down, they can get what they want from you. That’s why they’ll employ special tactics to try to make you trust them. It takes skill to see through their deceptiveness, but you can learn how to do it.

First, watch out for what’s known as forced teaming. This is when a criminal will pretend to be your friend to get you to do something. It’s easy to notice if they use the word “we” when describing a situation in which they’re trying to help you.

Take a woman named Kelly’s experience, for example. While carrying groceries up the stairs, a bag ripped, and cans tumbled everywhere. A man below began collecting the cans and offered to help. When Kelly refused, he said, “we have a cat to feed up there!” in an attempt to make her feel like he was on her side.

But this couldn’t be further from the truth. It turned out the man was a rapist and murderer. Kelly got extremely lucky that day.

Another tip for protecting yourself is to be wary of seductiveness in strangers. This is yet another way criminals try to get you to stop listening to your intuition. And if you know anything about Ted Bundy, falling for it can have serious consequences.

No matter how charming somebody is, if they don’t respect your wishes, that’s a sign they’re dangerous.

Do you know somebody that, when they enter a room, everybody feels their presence? Maybe they stand in a powerful pose or take up more space by acting taller or stronger. This is just one example of how people use body language to convey how they feel. Thankfully, the body language of violent people is almost always the same. Make sure to watch out for a jutting chin as one sign of anger. Another way to tell if someone is a threat is if they flare their nostrils. And people who seem always to be staring or glaring at you are often violent within. Empathy, which is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes, is another way to protect yourself. If you can tell what emotions someone is feeling, you can more accurately analyze the risk they might pose. Imagine you’re starting to get angry emails from an employee you just fired. Think about what he’s going through to find out what he wants to accomplish by what…