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
I’m no expert but from what I understand evolution is super slow compared to how quickly humans advanced in technology and society.
Evolutionarily speaking we’re still tens of thousands of years behind and modern humans originated somewhere in Eastern or southern Africa (not sure which). Both areas have dangerous skittering animals like scorpions and stuff that like to live in cool dark places which is where people would seek shelter too.
There were likrly enough unhappy run ins with such animals that we kind of got hard wired to be wary of things that move like spiders and scorpions do.
I think the feeling of anxiety and the idea that having a spider or its web on you is gross are just manifestations of a really old instinct that likely has been with modern humans ever since they first braved the jungles of Africa to spread out over the world.
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