Fear Overrides
Fear overrides happen when threat salience pushes assigned credence beyond what the agent perceives the evidence to support.
The Pattern
Fear is not irrational by default. It is a signal of possible threat. The failure occurs when fear silently becomes evidence, raising confidence beyond what the actual support warrants.
A person may know that a danger is unlikely and still live as if it is probable. That is a Perceived Evidence to Assigned Credence gap (EP-CA): perceived evidence and assigned credence have come apart under emotional pressure.
Why Fear Is Persuasive
Fear is persuasive because it is action-oriented. It treats delay as danger. It prefers false positives to false negatives. In some environments that bias is adaptive; in reflective inquiry it can miscalibrate belief.
Repair
Repair begins by naming the split: "My fear is high; my evidence is moderate." That sentence protects the difference between affect and credence. Then use base rates, outside views, time delays, and trusted review to restore calibration.