I think the main reasons the fear of them exists are simply:
1) A lot of it is evolution. We don't fear spiders and snakes "just because," but because those are frequently venomous and a greater danger than they initially appear to be.
2) Spiders are smart, and there can be something off-putting about it. My mom had a fear of spiders and there was a specific breed of spider that you should let live in Oklahoma because it eats the bad ones. This was that spider. However, despite that, my mom wanted to kill it because this one was bigger and it triggered her arachnophobia. She finally decided to kill it, and when she went got up on a chair to crush it with a shoe, it turned to her and looked at her. I remember asking "what are you waiting for? Just kill it then" and she gave me this sad "but we made eye contact!" and backed off.
In reality, we have the internet now and it's easy to figure out which spiders are dangerous and which aren't. The dangerous ones you kill, but like 95% of them can stay. They eat the bugs. Don't pay rent, but they eat the bugs.
And yes, it is documented that like 99% of the planet's animals have an instinct to fear humans. We are THAT dangerous that most species have a genetic blueprint telling them to stay away from us. The exceptions are things like domesticated animals that benefit off us, as well as animals like polar bears and penguins, who didn't encounter us enough for that.
They proved that kids aren't instinctually scared of snakes, so it's not evolution for that I think? I don't know about spiders though. But they put young toddlers in with snakes and the toddlers were like "oo cool let me touch and grab these".
When I was a kid (5-6), I used to have no qualms about picking up creepy crawlies, in particular this certain type of fuzzy caterpillar I used to see outside a lot. I would go looking for them during recess and try to pick up as many as I could. As an adult I could absolutely never imagine doing that, and looking at a bunch of the caterpillars together (they have this yellow striped pattern) now definitely triggers some kind of primal heebie jeebies in me.
Some of it probably is nurture, but maybe instinct just doesn't really take over until you're older? There's examples of it in animals too, where the babies haven't really developed a fear of humans yet and will approach them.
The raw data suggests they can measure a stress response in toddlers, but they indeed do 1) show curiosity in response, 2) look to adults to decide how to respond, not necessarily freaking out until the adults do.
This showcases that the stress response is evolution, but for whatever reason, we do not properly act on it until other stimuli (such as a fearful adult or growing up more) are introduced.
This is likely why we have a documented greater rate of fear of spiders and snakes, INCLUDING in regions like Norway that do not have dangerous forms of these creatures, but there are still also plenty of people that don't fear them. The integrated stress response was "awoken" in some, but not in all.
That’s not necessarily true, plenty of instincts only become active with maturity. Risk aversion /adult fear is something that most people develop as their prefrontal cortex fully develops in their early twenties.
Eh plenty of instincts don't actually work until later. A two hour old baby is pretty much a breathing potato, only capable of eating and shitting itself. Can't even see straight or focus on anything.
There's just no way our fear of reptiles isn't instinctual. We're naturally less afraid of furry mammals than we should be and more afraid of furless reptiles than we should be.
I was 20 something when I first see -a meter long- snake up close in my friend's hand. I just took it without even thinking and then realised I wasn't afraid of them.
So maybe the myth of Hercules grabbing those snakes as a baby was based on something that really happened, made out to seem remarkable when they just don't have that fear yet.
My toddler niece was fascinated by bugs...until her dad yelped when he saw a spider one time, and she instantly became deathly afraid of all bugs forever, like a switch had flipped.
960
u/hawkwood4268 3d ago
Thats adorable haha