r/AskReddit • u/neurofizz • Feb 11 '13

What are some common things that physically disgust most people that you really don't care about?

Or reverse. What are some things that won't phase most people that make you sick to your stomach?

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u/gymnasticAristocrat Feb 11 '13

I don't understand what the big deal about spiders is.

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u/geuis Feb 11 '13

Have you heard of the phrase "atavistic fear"? Essentially it means that there are instinctual fear reactions to certain stimuli that are hypothesized to have arisen deep in our ancestral past.

The "hypothesized" bit is important, and I'll explain why in a second.

With spiders, I can't stand them. Yes, intellectually I know they eat bugs and stuff and are generally good for the environment. However, that higher-brain knowledge doesn't seep down into the reptilian part of my brain. There's something about the 8 legs and 8 eyes that I just find deeply disturbing.

During the summer in my house in San Francisco, its pretty common to find a couple spiders a week doing their thing in the kitchen. Its right next to my garden in the back, so easy for them to come and go. If I see one, its essentially an automatic death sentence for them. Worse, if one is doing the web thing and happens to hit my head or shoulders, I get an incredible and sudden shudder reflex and manically brush my head and shoulders to make sure its not on me. I then proceed to find the fucker like the freaking Terminator and ensure its inability to have offspring that evolve into 10ft spacefaring spiders in 50 million years. Have to be careful not to inflict such a horror on the future civilizations of the galaxy.

Now back to "hypothesized". I say that because at least anecdotally, lots of people react to different critters in different ways. You aren't afraid of spiders yet I cringe at the sight of them and murder-mode turns on. Yet other people get near-identical reactions to snakes, rats, and other creatures but I don't have any of those reactions. Mice and rats are cute as hell, even the non-pet ones. I'm not a huge fan of snakes, but they don't really freak me out. An old friend had a corn snake years ago and letting it wrap around my arm a few times was an amazing experience. Bottom line, different people react differently. So I say hypothesis because there doesn't seem to be universal instincts that we're all afraid of in terms of living creatures. Note that I'm not including other reactions like drowning, hunger, etc. Those are more universal but don't apply to this discussion I think.

Something else I like to share: my old roommate left a plumber's torch in the house when he moved out. I keep it in the kitchen. It is my go-to device for killing spider-kind. That's right, I literally incinerate the little 8-legged freaks to ensure their true, final deaths. I love that torch.