The key is looking back on the situation and spotting the signs that should have encouraged you rather than made you scared. And perhaps you can pass that knowledge to your future generation and hope that they put your experience to use.
A surfeit of scary information can be harmful; it can make us more scared than we need to be. The author's research indicates this can lead to making bad decisions because we're expending our mental effort on being scared.
that works both ways. a surplus of naively optimistic information (you! can! flip! a! house! today!, no money down), encourages excess risk.
if anything though, the "fear" of negative consequences is nonsensical now because for many americans, avoiding disaster is not an option, disaster is already happening. positive thinking isn't going to unforeclose their home.