Imagine you're a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates -- but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.

Karen Thompson Walker: What fear can teach us

What fear can teach us

Fear, an act of imagination, can be as insightful as storytelling, showing how our deepest anxieties craft narratives of future adversities.

Fear, acting as an unintentional storyteller, can shape survival decisions and future predictions, as shown by the whaleship Essex.

Viewing fears as stories we tell ourselves reveals their power to shape actions under pressure, a truth revealed through historic ordeals.