• Question: Why are so many humans scared of the same things – e.g. spiders, snakes, the dark, the unknown, clowns, injections? Also, are species similar to us, like chimps, scared of the same things?

    Asked by gallifreyanhippo to Aled, Ellie, Fiona, Kev, Willem on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Eleanor Parker

      Eleanor Parker answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      That’s a really interesting question. I think the answer is that no one really knows! The fear of spiders (and other insects) is thought to be because they are small creatures we see out the corner of our eyes that move unpredictably and erratically which we are hard-wired to not like (we don’t know what it is or where it’ll move next, quick run!!). But where irrational fears (phobias) come from is not clear. It’s thought to be a mix of genetics, stress and trauma. Personally I think environment has a lot to do with it. We are taught that certain things are scary (spiders, clowns etc) by our family, friends, tv, movies etc, so we fear them too.
      I hope that answered your question a little, perhaps some of the other scientists know a bit more about phobias than me and can help more?

    • Photo: Willem Heijltjes

      Willem Heijltjes answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Hi Galli!

      I think that for the fears that are really common, there is probably a good reason for all of them – I think they are genuinely about dangerous things! For example, spiders and snakes can be venomous. In the dark, being outside in the wilderness is *really* very dangerous when there are wild animals around, and don’t forget that we had wolves in this country only a few hundred years ago! For clowns, the movie IT was really scary 😉 (it’s a horror movie about a clown), and injections can really hurt!

      What we’re discovering about more and more animals is that they use different sounds to warn others for different things. For instance, meerkats have alarm calls for snakes, for hawks, for scorpions, and also for other groups of meerkats! From this, it looks like the things they are afraid of are similar things to us: venomous bugs, and animals that want to eat them!

    • Photo: Kevin Arbuckle

      Kevin Arbuckle answered on 14 Mar 2014:


      I can’t add much to what Ellie and Willem have already said, but remember that fear is good! Fear keeps us safe because it makes (some of) us stay away from dangerous things like heights, snakes, spiders, and sharp objects. But the problem is that fear is so beneficial that it is very easy to ‘learn’ when you are growing up. This means that small things when we are young like a bad experience or seeing someone else scream when they see something can easily make us afraid too.

      Also, we now live in a very different environment than when we evolved to fear particular things. So lots and lots of people are scared of spiders, and some people think that this is a genetic fear – one that is built into us. Because humans (probably) came from Africa originally and spent most of our evolutionary history in places with at least some dangerous spiders, it used to be a good thing to be afraid of spiders. But now that some people (like us) live in the UK and we don’t have any dangerous spiders here, the fear is a bit misplaced. So in part, some of our fears have been helpful for so long in our evolution that we have not been free of the dangers long enough to lose the fear response.

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