Why are so many humans (myself included) afraid of spiders? Arachnophobia consistently lands in the top 10 most-common phobias. Why? Especially when there aren’t *that* many deadly species of them? Why spiders over other animals?
In: Biology
Fast, erratic, unpredictable movements. You can intuitively guess how a mammal will move, and most flying things can’t fly backwards. They’re easy to evade. It’s much harder to guess whether a spider will start running and in which direction.
“Phobia” is also an “irrational fear” of something. That spiders aren’t usually dangerous and easily squishable makes it a phobia and not just fear. (Though what amounts to “dangerous” for an adult and a toddler is vastly different, it would make more sense for toddlers to stay away from creepy crawlies but *they* often don’t and will happily play with a scorpion)
Most snakes aren’t dangerous either, but those that are are bad news. It’s better to assume they are than start checking colors. The amygdala fires before the conscious brain caught up. Better jump 10 times for nothing than once not when you should have.
Phobias are also learned early on. Phobic parents, even when strongly trying to act cool so the kids don’t get scared still give off signals that something is not ok that little kids pick up on. Rodents are usually cute until adults teach that they’re disgusting and dangerous.
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