There is a well-known psychological experiment (link here) initially published by the European Journal of Social Psychology, which demonstrates clearly how the rapid “see-sawing” of emotions (particularly from negative emotions to relief) has the effect of making people compliant. The experiment involved a college student standing just outside a busy marketplace and asking random passers-by for 5 minutes of their time to fill out a questionnaire for a school project. Researchers found less than 30% of shoppers were kind enough to stop, give up their time, and fill out the questionnaire.
Their Ace in the hole is the EMERGENCY. Be very afraid!