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Eep! Most of us grown-ups would freak if we came across a critter like this one -- but a new study suggests that babies and very young kids aren't afraid of these and other creepy crawlers.
Like the girl in that old Jim Stafford song, most people don’t like spiders and snakes. But according to new research involving infants and children, we don’t start off this way.
According to Vanessa LoBue, assistant professor of psychology at Rutgers and co-author of a recent study in Current Directions in Psychological Science, spider and snake phobias are incredibly common. But they’re also rather baffling, since most of us have never been directly threatened by a wolf spider or garter snake.
“When you look at the way people learn to be afraid of things, they usually have a negative encounter,” she says. “A dog bites you when you’re little, so you’re afraid of dogs. But most people haven’t been bitten by a snake or spider.”
One popular view to explain our disproportionate fear is that humans have developed a genetic advantage to recognize – and fear -- snakes and spiders very quickly. In other words, natural selection favors people who scream bloody murder whenever they see what appears to be a poisonous critter.
According to a series of experiments conducted on more than 70 small children, though, while quickly recognizing creepy creatures appears to be innate, fearing them is not.
In one experiment, researchers showed videos of a snake and some other exotic animal (like an elephant or giraffe) to 48 infants, ages 7 to 9 months or 16 to 18 months. They then played either a “happy voice” or a “fearful voice” to the children and observed what the children were looking at when listening to the voices. Children looked at the snake picture longer when listening to the “fearful” voice.
Other experiments involved asking 24 toddlers and 24 adults to look at nine pictures and identify a target picture such as a flower or mushroom or cockroach or spider. Much like the adults, the 3-year-olds detected snakes more quickly than flowers or frogs or caterpillars and detected spiders more quickly than mushrooms or cockroaches.
“Children and infants respond in similar ways as adults,” says LoBue. “They respond to [spiders and snakes] really quickly. But they’re not afraid of them. Not a single one got upset.”
Where does our horror of these creatures come from, then? LoBue says that’s what she’s trying to figure out with new research, which involves studying how toddlers behave when they encounter a live tarantula or live snake.
“The fear itself is what I’m interested in,” she says. “How do 3-year-olds who can rapidly detect snakes and are biased to associate snakes with fear become fearful adults? Do they learn it from their parents? Do they learn it from textbooks? Do they just learn that snakes are things that can cause harm? Or do they observe moms or teachers or friends behaving fearfully?”
Gina Lindblad, a 32-year-old public relations account manager from Seattle, says she has no doubt where she learned her fear of snakes.
“When I was 5, my grandmother and I were playing around a stack of small boulders at my family’s lake property and we both noticed a snake slither between two rocks,” she says. “Grandma freaked out and scurried back towards the cabin and naturally, I went with her. She refused to go back by the rocks for the rest of the day and I was afraid to even go back on the lawn. Later, she felt bad and told me we should name the snake Cinderella and call the boulders her ‘castle.’ But I’ve been terrified of snakes ever since.”
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No way..... so there was a study done to find out fear of random things is learned from the parents? WOW....
I guess the next study will be how tots like all foods till their parents teach them some aren't good. and then a study of how parents feed them lotsa BK and MCdonalds because its cheap and fast and how it is BK and Mcdonalds fault they are doing it and maybe should be sued to stop selling cheap fast food.
Why don't you go out and rent some intellect.
Here's one case where you can blame the media, but the source far pre-dates modern media. In many (most?) cultures, spiders and snakes are often the villains in folk tales, and that has carried over into modern media (e.g., movies). The Christian biblical account of the serpent in the garden caused many western cultures to associate snakes with evil/the devil. As such, it makes sense that children who begin life with no real fear of the creatures would develop fear.
A few cultures revere (or at least present positive images of) spiders and serpents. Anansi the spider is one such example out of Africa, and, while not precisely snakes, eastern cultures revere dragons (eastern dragons, which are very similar to serpents).
Family friends of ours lived for a number of years in an African country. Their 2 year old told them there was a pretty ribbon on mama's bed. It was a really big Mamba. This was all in the early 60s. My husband is scared of snakes, I like them. My daughter would love a pet snake and my son is scared of them. go figure. Now, i don't like scorpions. I am not fond of spiders but I really dislike scorpions.
I am not certain about this one, our youngest granddaughter was terrified of our horses at a very young age( her sister had always loved them from the very start) What surprised me was even at 8-9 months if we walked near them she would start shaking very hard... AND even if we were standing away from the horses and she was calm she would start shaking if her sister walked near them which at that young of an age surprised me. Then she suddenly lost ALL fear of them at about 2.
But tots do pick up on their parents fears.
My 3-year old loves snakes and electric eels but is terried of the (live) butterfly room at the local museum. No one told her to be afraid of butterflies, but she freaks out if they land on her! All in all, she's an intrepid little girl.
I like how we need scientific studies to tell us what should be common sense. I remember I used to be scared of spiders when I was a kid, then one day I wondered WHY I was scared of them. I thought about it for a little while, examined some spiders, and figured I was only scared of them because I didn't really know much about them (i.e. - whether or not certain kinds could bite, etc). I'm not scared of them any more and I actually think they're kinda cute. When I used to work at the St. Louis Zoo I'd play with the spiders I found there and stop customers from killing them. I even allow certain types of spiders to live in my garage (in a controlled population, of course) to eat bugs. It works great.
Very good Halifax. I don't kill spiders because they are natural pest control - they keep other insects out of my way.
I am scared of lizards because as a little girl I was trying to catch one and I ended up with just his tail in my hand......LMAO That really freaked me out and to this day I will have nothing to do with them.
tooooo funny!!!!!!!
My nephew was terrified of butterflies when he was a toddler. No idea why, guess they just creeped him out.
I have a nephew that is terrified of butterflies too. He's actually scared of any bug that flies!
I'm scared of stupid articles.
Fear or healthy respect of snakes and spiders is often learned by picking them up,and getting a nice little bite. It worked on me!!
duuuh.. if you have a negative connotation with something (or see it from someone else) you are going to be waaayyy more likely to fear it. boys aren't as afraid of these things because they are taught to be tough girls on the other hand are taught that showing emotions and fears is ok and that snakes and spiders are creepy. of course the like or dislike of these things isn't always due to gender, but it's the same boys being less emotional than girls. they are taught to be that way.
Toddlers have not yet learned the word "disgust/disgusting/disgusted. They will even drink milk from a glass with a cockroach sitting on it. Why do you think they eat mud, dirt, bugs? Saw this on one of the cable channels.
Didn't the article say they were shown pictures? That's not the same as holding a daddy long legs or a garter snake. I don't think they would necessarily have the same results if the study were done around the real creatures.
This is a tough one. I think I learned my fears of creatures like this from my mom in particular. I don't want to blame mom for everything though. I had good experiences growing up with small snakes and mice (used to be the classroom monitor of them when I was an elementary school kid, cleaning their little cages and all) so they don't scare me to this day. Now, depending on how large the snake or mouse might be (like a rat) well that might be different. I just think that as you get older you realize the danger of things and that's part of what turns you off.
I want to know what kind of crazy @$$ parents let their babies and toddlers be a part of a study like this? No way I would subject my kids to something like that, wether they have shown a fear of them or not. Why take the chance of scaring the sh*t out of your kids and making them be paranoid for the rest of their lives?
One of my earliest memories - would have been age two or three - is sitting in the bathtub of the hundred year old farmhouse we lived in when a big, black spider entered the water. The kind of spider that makes a good many people imitate an Indian rain dance when seen. I wasn't overly alarmed, but I think I believed it to be yet another bathtub toy and likely drowned it while attempting to play with it. The idea that it may have actually been a living creature never crossed my mind at the time.
Occasionally I fill the tub and find a spider in the water upon returning. I reach in and rescue it with an extended finger. Never had one bite me yet; I imagine they're just glad to be back on 'dry land'!
When my 10 yr old daughter was approximately 6 months old there was a large spider crawling towards her by our sliding glass door and she freaked out. I looked around to see what she was fussing about and saw the huge spider and I freaked out as well!!
I think children learn fear most of the time from adults. I can vividly remember a cockroach flying towards me and biting me on the neck when i was 4 years old - been afraid of them ever since. I'm definitely not going to project that fear to my son; after all he's going to have to kill them for me when he gets older.lol.
I think some fears my be formed just by example. Children tend to think that their mom or dad is fearless. So if one of them runs from a spider, to them it stands to resaon that it should be feared. It isn't all just example though. I'll pick up any snake (no poisonous snakes inhabit the region I call home), but spiders are your department. Not for me. I don't run from them, but I certainly won't pick one up. Eight legs and just as many eyes just gives me the willys'.
My child was not only not afraid of spiders, as I recall she found a few of them quite tasty.
lawful1
That's funny, but I'm just going to go ahead and gag anyway.
The toddlers haven't been bitten by a brown recluse on the eyelid. Once they are, their opinion may change.
I'm scared of snakes and fish. Snakes because they're faster than me and slithery. Fish....well, I guess the same reason. Not like spiders and mice who can move fast but only in one direction at a time. Fish & snakes can "bend" and get you! LOL Now, my mom is scared of mice & spiders. I think they're cute!
Jessica..oh wholey moley....so right. I don't swim in oceans or lakes coz the fish live there and will get me!
Jessica and sparkly
My ex-wife is so freaked out over snakes that if we were driving down the road and ran one over, she would pick her feet up off of the floor. Even if it were already dead before we ran it over.
wich...tooo funny...and smart woman!
Sorry, I mean on the eyelid.
I work construction and a young hawk once found its way into the building. There were no windows yet, just openings. Of course everyone had to go look. Except one person who just happened to be a woman. Her name is Trish. She's a taper. Anyway, I asked her "did you go check out that hawk?" She says "no, I'm afraid of birds". Honestly, she was terrified. It's a phobia. Some things just can't be explained.
I agree with Janet 3031953. I wasn't afraid of spiders until I was bitten by one while sleeping at age 5. I woke up with my right eye swollen the size of a softball.
Years later, I grew up on four acres of land and shared every shower with giant hairy wolf spiders. At age 35, I'm still terrified of them - just see today's post on seasideskinny.com.
Part of my family is made up of a variety of snakes. As a child, I learned respect for those that are dangerous, such as the rattlesnakes that lived on the ranch in SE Arizona where I was born - but I was not taught fear. Also as a child, I learned at a young age what a Black Widow spider was and how much harm they could do. Again, I respect them, but because they're venemous, I wouldn't handle one without gloves. I won't handle venemous snakes at all - I'm not trained to do so, nor am I interested at this age. A snake can get away with from you just enough to tag you, and that's not fun. Still, with all the snake bites I've had, I have absolutely no fear of them whatsoever. Over time, my snakes come to understand I mean them no harm, I'm the source of food, warmth and comfort for them. We get along just fine.