Learned fear of snakes and spiders

Learned fear of snake and spiders

31.01.2011

Animal phobias, for example, from spiders, snakes or mice are not innate, but are accepted very quickly. US researchers have found that children learn the fear of snakes and spiders conspicuously fast in their early stages of life.

A US study of toddlers of various ages has shown that animal phobias are not innate, yet infants already have them „learn“. Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey investigated the response of infants to various animal pictures. While the videos were initially presented without sound, the researchers then played a frightened or cheerful voice parallel to the children. The US scientists have found that the children showed a different reaction to the different animals only at the age of seven months, depending on the acoustic background.

Children's reaction depending on accompanying voice
Vanessa LoBue from Rutgers University in New Jersey and colleagues, in the course of their study, first showed two videos side by side to a group of children aged seven months. One of the videos showed pictures of snakes, the other of animals not associated with phobias, such as elephants. The toddlers have shown no different reaction to the different images, the US researchers report. If the children played a frightened or happy voice in parallel with the pictures, this has changed. As soon as the anxious tuner sounded, the little ones looked at the line much longer than the second video.

Fear of snakes is learned quickly
To further substantiate their findings, Rutgers University researchers further investigated the response of three-year-olds to various animal images. The little ones also looked at animal photos of more fear-inspiring animals such as snakes and photos of harmless animals such as frogs or caterpillars. When the three-year-olds were asked to choose one of the pictures, they often chose the snakes, regardless of whether the children were afraid of reptiles or not. Overall, their study has shown clear signs that people tend to, „To discover things like snakes or spiders very quickly and to connect them with bad things, like a frightened voice“, said Vanessa LoBue, a psychologist at Rutgers University. Doing so according to LoBue „two aspects (...) snakes and spiders especially“: „First, we discover it very quickly. And we learn very quickly to be afraid of it.“

Phobias are favored by several factors
The fact that the fear of spiders, snakes and other creatures is already learned in the early stages of human life and there is a clear dependence on the acoustic stimuli or the voice of those involved, suggests that children tend to take over the phobias of their parents , Thus, the child learns the panic reaction of the parents to certain animals and will probably also show similar behavior patterns at some point. In addition to snakes and spiders, phobias are more likely to target mice, rats, bees, wasps, dogs and cats - but can generally occur in relation to any living being. Overall, however, animals are more likely to be the cause of a phobia whose appearance is very different from the human body schema, which scares us by its sudden appearance in the area and whose movement is fast and unpredictable. (Fp)

Image: Michael Wittstock