Although snakes are poisonous, they are much smaller than humans. Obviously, they are not afraid of people, why should we be afraid of them?
Man is a sensitive creature. We have many different fears: fear of heights, fear of mice, fear of insects, fear of holes… But perhaps, most of us, more or less, have a common fear. It’s about snakes.
In fact, fear of snakes is one of the most common fears. However, let’s look at the logic of the matter: snakes are poisonous, but much smaller than humans. Obviously, they are not afraid of people, why should we be afraid of them?
Fear of snakes is one of the most common fears.
The fear of snakes is surprisingly common. We obviously don’t always see snakes, but that fear is in everyone.
But more importantly, it’s not that we’ve been afraid of snakes since childhood. Children 1 – 2 years old are rarely afraid of snakes, but they are able to spot snakes very quickly. And just having a bad memory with snakes, or simply watching a documentary about snakes, is enough for them to “learn to fear” this animal.
Humans have evolved to feel fear of snakes.
But why such a strange phenomenon?
The answer lies in evolution , and in fact it plays a very important role
Specifically, psychologists from the University of Virginia suggest that humans have evolved to be afraid of snakes (and spiders, too). They performed an experiment in which both adult and child candidates looked at photographs of wild animals.
2 groups will be able to observe pictures of 2 types: snakes among creatures of the same color: toads, flowers, worms… The second form is other creatures in the middle of a group of snakes.
They found that both groups of subjects were able to recognize images of snakes faster… This seems to be an evolutionary trait, since when humans can perceive snakes faster, the likelihood of survival increases. in nature is also larger.
As humans can sense snakes faster, the chances of survival in the wild are also greater.
In addition, they also performed the same experiment with spiders, and the results were still the same. “Snakes and spiders are dangerous creatures but very difficult to detect. The ancients had to face them day by day, and it formed a fear,” said Vanessa LoBue, a PhD student at the University of Virginia.
“Throughout evolutionary history, humans learned to fear snakes as quickly as possible, in order to create better conditions for survival and reproductive cycles.”
“This ability seems to be ingrained in our genomes.”
In short, we humans evolved to be afraid of snakes. You can choose to respect that evolution and stay away from the snakes, that’s all.