I’m asking quite generally and I suppose what I’m getting at is those phobias that elude simple explanations such as a fear of heights stemming from not wanting to hurt oneself by falling.
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for our irrational fears There are a number of possible explanations for why we might develop irrational fears, or phobias. One possibility is that we learn to be afraid of certain things through conditioning – if we have a bad experience with something (e.g. being bitten by a dog), we may start to associate that thing with fear and avoid it in the future. Another possibility is that our brains are wired to pay more attention to potential threats, which can lead us to overestimate the danger they pose. This may be an evolutionary adaptation that helped our ancestors survive in a dangerous world. Finally, it’s also possible that some people are just more prone to anxiety and fear than others, due to genetic factors or differences in brain chemistry.
Basically being scared is and was a useful adaptation to keep us safe (fear of heights super obvious example of this). However, threats are variable, so while certain things can be fairly genetically programmed (i think its likely without any experience most people would be scared of a charging growling bear), a lot need to be learned. So we have to have the ability to learn to be scared of stuff.
Any time that our brain or body has to be adaptive, there’s a chance it can gets misdirected – this accounts for allergies and auto immune disorders from the immune system, abnormal scarring from skin etc.
When that misdirection occurs in the brain relating to fear responses, we get phobias. Sometimes the source of the misfire is clear, sometimes not so much.
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