The Sims 4 Wishes and Fears, Explained

In The Sims 4, wishes and fears are a game-changing feature. Influenced in real-time by the actions and consequences of the world around you, your Sim...

Phil Helsel

Aug 30, 2023

In The Sims 4, wishes and fears are a game-changing feature. Influenced in real-time by the actions and consequences of the world around you, your Sim could find themselves with a devastating fear of fire after a house fire - or develop a fear of infidelity after performing below average during WooHoo with their partner.

If you're a longtime player of The Sims 4, you may recall whims, which were essentially mini-wishes. However, whims are now a thing of the past, and instead, you develop an additional wish after acquiring one of the many possible fears. Here's an insight into how the wish and fear system works.

Updated on August 30, 2023, by Jacqueline Zalace: If you neglect your Sim's wishes and fears, the situation can quickly spiral out of control. We have updated this guide with some additional information on managing wishes and fears in The Sims 4. Additionally, we have optimized our format to help you quickly find what you're looking for.

How Do Wants Work?

The Sims 4 Wants And Fears, Explained

Wishes are urges and desires that your Sim develops throughout the day. Depending on their mood, relationships, work performance, and much more, your Sim's impulses will steer their wishes in different directions day by day.

Sometimes, your wishes are influenced by low needs, such as feeling dirty and longing for a bath. In other moments, you may want to flirt with the neighbors after making an exciting new acquaintance.

To preserve a wish before updating, you can click on the pushpin symbol next to it to pin a wish, indicating your intention to fulfill it at some point.

How To Change Your Wants

The Sims 4 Wants And Fears,

If you've been struggling to meet the whims of your Sims and find it difficult to achieve those unattainable goals, there is a way to have the game update your wishes with others.

To do this, go to the settings menu, open the "Gameplay" tab, and toggle the switch for "Show Whims & Fears" off and then back on. This should give you a completely new set of wishes to work with. Hopefully, this will bring you better luck.

What Happens To Unfulfilled Wants?

The Sims 4 Wants And

If you neglect to pay attention to or fulfill the wishes, your Sim will develop a fear of unfulfilled dreams. This seems to be a way for the game to encourage you to incorporate wishes and fears into your regular gameplay.

Wishes and fears can also be determined by the active traits or occult specifics of your Sim. For example, vampires should not have a fear of darkness and may not enjoy going to the beach, while anxious Sims will be more suspicious of crowded spaces.

When you see a wish with jagged edges, it presents an opportunity for your Sim to challenge an active fear and eliminate negative effects caused by that fear, such as the negative moodlet "Uncomfortable" that activates for Sims who have a fear of crowds when they are in busy places. In the following, we will take a closer look at each fear and ways to confront them.

How Do Fears Work?

The Sims 4 Wants

Fears are temporary traits that appear in your Sim's personality panel, along with regular and acquired traits, and are developed over time.

Similar to traits influencing how your Sim feels in certain social or personal situations, fears will negatively impact your Sim or make them more susceptible to negative moodlets that wouldn't be triggered without fears.

You won't wake up with new fears every day; instead, you will passively develop them as your Sim experiences life. This means that your fears will only disappear under specific circumstances, and at any given time, you could have more than just three fears.

To get rid of fears, you must directly confront them. If you don't, your Sim will experience increasingly stronger negative moods that will affect their everyday life.

All Sims 4 Fears And How To Face Them

The Sims 4

Below, you can check each possible fear in The Sims 4 and learn how to confront them.

Fear	Trigger	How To Face It
Fear Of Failure	Creating a subpar item, such as a food dish or carving, or achieving poor work performance if in a job that doesn't require creating objects.	Create an item of excellent quality and select the 'Show Off Work' interaction, or select the Ask For Performance Review option.
Fear Of Fire	Witnessing a fire break out in front of you.	Extinguish a fire yourself.
Fear Of Death	Witnessing a close friend or family member die.	Discuss Death with a friend, or present the Grim Reaper with a Death Flower.
Fear Of Crowded Places	Being somewhere busy.	Whilst influenced by a Confident moodlet, conduct a Funny interaction in a crowded place.
Fear Of Being Cheated On	Ignoring your partner for a long time - or feeling embarrassed after performing poorly at WooHoo with them.	Discuss Relationship Fears with your partner.
Fear Of Unfulfilled Dreams	Not completing Wants frequently enough.	Complete a Want and then select Talk About Fears with any Sim you feel close to.
Fear Of Being Judged	People being mean to your Sim.	Select the Sim who was nasty and choose 'Work Out Differences' to make peace and find common ground.
Fear Of Dead End Job	Not being promoted for a long time at your job.	Before heading to work, click 'Regain Passion' to feel reinvigorated.
Fear Of Ghosts	Have a scary interaction/experience with a ghost.	Select the 'Fight' option under the Mean interactions menu to fight a ghost.
Fear Of Swimming	Have a negative experience while swimming.	Go swimming whilst feeling Confident.
Fear Of The Dark	Have a scary interaction/experience at night.	Whilst Confident, hang out outside at nighttime.
Fear Of Cowplants	Get eaten by a Cowplant and live to tell the tale.	Milk a Cowplant whilst feeling Confident.
Fear Of Horses (Horse Ranch expansion)	Have a negative experience with a horse.	Discuss your fear of horses with a friend.
Fear Of Homework (High School Years expansion)	Don't do homework.	Complete homework whilst feeling Confident.
Fear Of Failing Tests (High School Years expansion)	Fail a test.	Get a good grade on a test whilst Confident.
Fear Of Failing After-School Activity (High School Years expansion)	Have a bad interaction while doing After-School Activity.	Complete After-School Activities whilst feeling Confident.
Fear Of Disappointing Parents (High School Years expansion)	Have a bad interaction with parents.	Discuss fear with parents.
Fear Of Failing Classes (High School Years expansion)	Fail a class.	Pass a class.

How To Mod Fears Out In The Sims 4

The Sims

Your Sim's mood is at an all-time low. They are afraid of their child's birthday party and can't go outside to get the mail because it's dark out. You could simply disable the wishes and fears system through the gameplay menu in the settings, but where's the fun in that if you can just remove the parts that don't bring you joy?

If all else fails and you're tired of being brave, the following mods are here to save the day.

Get Rid Of Your Fears: A mod that creates an interaction when you use a mirror that will get rid of any active Fears immediately.
Sims Get No Fears: If you want to permanently get rid of Fears whilst retaining the impressive buffs of playing with Wants, this mod removes Fears from the game entirely.