Why are we so afraid of spiders?
In: Biology
Because our parents and guardians teach us to be. But we can relearn they’re not scary, I’m a perfect example- I was utterly terrified of them as i was living in a country where they could kill me. I was advised to learn all I could about them in graphic detail. Literally everything, biology, behaviour… everything.
It took about a year but I went from being terrified of them to being able to rewire my old house with my dad (when we’d moved back to the UK, so they can’t kill me here). No one had taken up the floorboards since the 70s so the giant house spiders had been undisturbed and some were once 25 years old (and so they were massive). Dead was to scattered to stick his hands in there so I did it. We’re couldn’t feed the wire through without nudging them out of the way, and it was safer to do it without gloves so I wouldn’t injure them and make them bite. I was scared at first but after we were done I loved them. I now totally adore spiders. Like *love* them.
If I could relearn that they’re not scary, anyone could
We get startled by seeing living things where we don’t expect them. Spiders go pretty much everywhere.
Common sense and racial memory. Things that are dangerous, venomous, poisonous or predatory was and is something to avoid.
Because you think you should be.
The only thing that humans are naturally afraid of is sudden, loud noise. Not fire, not spiders, not heights. Everything else is learned.
http://www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/selflearn/Conditioning.htm
Someone said it here, but I thought I would expand on it. Fear is learned, and very directly linked with childhood experiences. Just think of your strongest fears. Got one? Does it have a scary memory from your childhood to go along with it? Most likely. Humans, let alone animals, don’t come along with memories, and as such, can only learn what to be scared of after being born. You don’t know what a spider is until after you’re born. You don’t know that it moves “creepily” until after you’re born. You don’t know that other people are scared of them until after you’re born. Objectively, nothing is scary, but because everyone thinks spiders are scary, the cycle continues, and more and more people are taught that they are scary.
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