BEING afraid of snakes and spiders are two of the most common phobias among humans but why do people get creeped out by moths, frogs and other insects? Once again we can blame the parents.
When it comes to snakes, researchers believe that humans have evolved to fear them and that’s not such a bad thing.
Ottmar Lipp, who is a Professor of Psychology at Curtin University, said it would have been an evolutionary advantage for our ancestors to be afraid of snakes.
“Snakes eat primates and it has been proven that the ability to spot snakes quickly, to be alert to them and learn to be afraid of them was an advantage,” Prof Lipp said.
Being afraid of snakes seems to be a physiological response and people have been shown to be more open to developing a phobia to them.
Prof Lipp said laboratory testing had confirmed people could develop a fear of snakes and spiders much more quickly than to other animals. It is also more difficult to treat these phobias.
“It is more difficult to get rid of a fear of spiders and snakes than other fears, such as fear of fish or birds,” he said.
But where scientists have been able to establish a possible evolutionary link between a fear of snakes and their risk to primates, it was harder to pin down why people did not like spiders as they do not prey on humans.
Prof Lipp said theories about spiders were being investigated including that people did not like how unpredictable they were.
“Spiders are very quick and ... we want to be able to predict our environment and not be surprised, if something is moving in unexpected ways, it will draw our attention and make us wary.”
However, he said that insects were also quick moving so there seemed to be something special about spiders.
Another theory was that people provoked disgust in people and this then becomes fear.
This could be related to how they look but also, “have you ever walked into a spider’s web?”
As far as being dangerous to humans, Prof Lipp said it was actually quite rare to die from a spider bite, unlike snakes which still killed about a hundred people each year, especially in places like India and Indonesia.
When it comes to other phobias, Prof Lipp said this was often related to a negative experience, which mostly happened when people were young, or which they witnessed.
In the case of something like moths, someone’s phobia could have developed because their first experience was of one flying into their face or hair. Or they could be around other people who are afraid of moths.
“If they see other people responding fearfully, especially if children see this, they can learn their fears vicariously,” he said.
“If we know anything about fear and anxiety, it is that it is a learned response.”
Prof Lipp said the biggest predictor of whether a child would have a negative response to a dentist was what the attitude of the parent accompanying them was.
“If mum or dad who accompanies them is reasonably relaxed then the child will be relaxed as well, because they take their cues from their parents.”