Fear and terror are different emotions, say scientists We often use these words interchangeably, but in fact they mean different feelings. Fear is a system for detecting a potential threat, and terror is a separate response to events that contradict our ideas about the order of the world. It turned out that the feeling of horror arises precisely when the events that take place turn out to be too abnormal for the soul. However, the feeling of fear may not be that strong. Thus, the key concept for separating emotions was precisely the perception of the abnormality of events. Do you distinguish between fear and terror? Of course not, it's the same, I'm not afraid of anything.