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
We have three main phobias: Snakes, spiders and strangers. These were the usual dangers to be aware of. (German TV series “Geist und Gehirn” about psychology). Usually we’ll need to learn to have a phobia but for these we are inclined to rather not be bitten to death or to be invited for lunch (being the meal). We do have rituals to meet and to become friends (e.g. potlatch). In Australia a certain TV episode will not be aired because it features a friendly spider (and becoming friends could be deadly there).
Also we are good at spotting faces of predators. Those who didn’t see the tiger aren’t our ancestors.
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