Spiders

[matty2670]

Just why are spiders so bloody scary? I have no problem with any other creepy crawly, but I hate spiders. Is there a subconcious fear we have of them, or is it something about the shape of them? It seems weird that spiders are scary when other many-legged beasties aren't. I'm sure it's not just some mass hysteria thing-there is something about a spider that makes your skin crawl. Why???

[Rabelais]

It's one of those questions that doesn't have a definative answer. Early research into whether it is an innate evolutionary defense mechanism has been mainly disproven. Some research has been done into babies showing that they recognise the shapes of spiders and snakes preferentially to others in their environment suggesting some sort of instinctive trigger. But this wasn't linked to any fear of the shape, a baby would happily sit in a tank with a snake or spider. Other people believe the danger from spiders would be insufficient to influence evolution citing the fact there are no deadly spiders native to Europe that could exert an evolutionary pressure, yet that is where the strongest fear for spiders began. In areas where they are more posionous spiders no such fear exists. The most sensible evidence fits in with this learned behaviour model. Basically if you saw somebody at some stage in your life gibber and run round like a pansy at the sight of a spider/wasp/bee/snake you stand a chance of learning this behaviour.

[B00]

Also...is there something inbuilt in us that would rather fear something than not?

The reason I ask this is because i'm not scared of spiders at all, infact i'm rather fond of them and never kill or harm them if they're in my house, however my eldest daughter is terrified of them and will almost cry in fear if she sees one, which in turn has made my toddler scared of them too.

What i'm getting at (in my roundabout way!) is that despite my reassurances to Mini Boo that spiders are 'nice' she seems to prefer being scared of them like her big sister.

[Rabelais]

Well that's what I was trying to say. It seems to not be in built, it is a learned behaviour. The old "monkey see monkey do" hypothesis. No evidence to the contrary appears to hold water. Who your daughter may have picked the behaviour up from could be a peer or TV or a whole host of stimuli. Or she may have been inherently afraid of them, but she seems to have easily passed her fears to her younger sibling showing how contagious a fear it is.

[B00]

Cheers Rabelais, and sorry matty for the slight hijack of your thread here!!

Yep, that would appear to be the case Rabelais- my eldest daughter got her fear from her nana who will refuse to even enter a room if theres a spider in there.

Isn't it a shame that fear of something is more contagious than liking/fondness is?

[Bongle]

You have learnt your fear of spiders, either consciously as a young child, or unconsciously. Try NLP or hypnotherapy for phobia cure to get rid of it (if you want to). I used NLP fast phobia cure for my fear of water and now go swimming UNDER the stuff regularly.

[matty2670]

Thanks everyone. Rabelais actually touched upon an interesting point, I AM in fact a pansy...

[tiggerblue10]

Funnily enough I'm not scared of spiders at all, although I have an inane/irrational fear of worms!

I'm also not scared of snakes and mice. I still don't understand my fear of worms! Strange eh?

[suzi-q]

Anything with too many legs that runs fast or flies scares me. Too uncontrollable and wriggly. Ugh

[jembob]

This may sound silly but ive always had it in my head (god knows where from) that it is because we evolved from monkeys and apparently there are monkey eating spiders so monkeys are afraid of them and in turn we have got that fear in us from the evolution process....wether this is true or not i do not know but i always believed it!!

[Rabelais]

There have never, to the current knowledge of man, been any monkey eating spiders. The largest spider existing is less than a foot across.The largest in history was less than a metre and lived well before monkeys had evolved

[Abdulmajid]

Huge tarantulas are eaten by man (i.e primate/monkey) in the Amazon I believe.

I have seen them being cooked on documentaries and all their legs curl up when put on the flames to scorch their spider hairs off.

[Ice.Maiden]

I don't mind spiders either. I look at it that they catch some of the germ-ridden flies.
Tigger's worms....no...not keen.....
but the worst of the lot.....daddy long legs and earwigs. Ugh!

[WhiteBear]

interesting facts there, but i am petrified of spiders and creepy crawlys ... they r ugly little creatures with lots of legs... thinking about it just gives me the creeps :(

xx

[wildwood]

I really don't think the fear has anything to do with being a nancy. Many women who are terrified of spiders won't think twice about applying hot wax to some very sensitive places on their body and with the aid of sticky tape, rip a load of hair out.

It is a funny world we live in.