eli5 why do we (as a species) develop irrational fears?
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As a species we don’t – individuals can develop phobias but things that scare the vast majority of people are not irrational. Fear of snakes? we evolved in Africa which has a lot of deadly snakes. Ditto spiders.
Fear of heights? – falling can be deadly. Fear of the dark? Leopards hunt by night and were the main predator of early humans. All widespread fears are things where being scared was evolutionarily beneficial to our ancestors. People who started running when they heard a noise behind them when walking in the jungle had more kids than those who thought ‘ah it’s probably nothing’
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