Wants and fears, and the Fear emotion, are two different things.
The Fear emotion was introduced in the Cottage Living patch. So rather than becoming Tense during a thunderstorm or something else that would be scary, they become afraid. And they can panic from it, and do special actions because of their panic.
Wants and fears are different. There's something the sim wants, and they experience various emotions because they're afraid they won't get it.
And speaking of wants, how do you figure out WHAT the sim wants? Maybe I'll help them work on it, if only I knew what it was...
Ohhh, I see, they are supposed to come up like whims used to. I'm not seeing this. I didn't turn it off, but my game options for pack content are greyed out, I can't touch them.