See title. There are lots of situations where a character needs to keep a low profile, and causing sweaty palms and increased heartbeats to anyone who gets closed seems to make that harder.

Can a player chose to not have it apply?

Yes. The talent description reads "When an adversary becomes engaged with the char­acter, the character may force the adversary to make a fear check". The character can choose to not force a fear check. Narratively it could mean that character uses his Bruce Wayne voice instead of his Batman voice.

Thank you, careful reading for the win. I'll admit I'm not on best form at the moment.