My thoughts on Alan's:

In psychology, they call this the Attribution Theory:

When individuals observe the behavior of others, they attempt to explain this behavior by determining its cause(s). We can make either internal attributions (personality, skills, motivation) or external attributions (luck, politics, situational constraints).

For example, if you score well on a test, you are more likely to credit the grade to your own hard work, intelligence, etc., whereas if you scored poorly, you would blame it on situational factors, such as having a lousy teacher, or family problems getting in the way of your sucess.

This brings up very important, though seemingly obvious, point that there is more than one way to explain a situation.

I think it is possible that Alan, being both rational and an optimist, is explaining fear differently that the rest of us. This is how he [prospectively] deals with fear: He senses the fear first, processes it as an emotion, realizes it is not a good emotion, and then decides to explain it to himself in such a way that keeps him lookin' shiney. This is not to say that Alan is lying to himself or to anyone else. He is simply chosing to explain fearful situations in a way that will make him the happiest. Unfortunately, not all of us let ourselves off so easily. Some people are more self-critical.

Lets take an example: Alan and Alaina are standing at the mouth of a dark cave. Funny smells are being emitted from the dark abyss before them, and they can here a hollow, dripping sound from within. Then a distant BOOM. Alan realizes he's not too keen to enter this hole, because there would be little to gain from it and possibly a lot to lose. Alaina, however, is processing the same warnings that Alan is (about the little gain and big loss), but finds herself mentally frustrated over her fear of entering. She thinks that she should be able to enter, and views this situation as an opportunity to test her courage. Alaina's individual courage, irrationally, is more important to her than the rational warnings set before her. Too bad, though: regardless of her irrational desires to be courageous, the rational warnings still exist, and so she experiences fear.

That's the difference. Many (most, ...almost all) people have irrational values- like personal courage, whereas Alan does not. His concerns are purely rational, and that is why he does not experience fear.

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