Cause for fear of spiders

[Jeri]

I was doing a little thinking about arachnophobia, and came up with a possible reason for many people to dislike spiders. The kids were watching Charlotte's Web the other day, and I noticed the changes made to this "nice" spider by the artist. It was the same changes made to Rosie in A bug's Life, and Miss Spider in James and the Giant Peach. All of these "nice" spiders are portrayed as having heads. Now, we all know that real spiders don't have seperate heads. So, I was thinking that this might be a major reason for the great fear and lothing that many people have for spiders. If you think about it, people seem to have an aversion to anything without a head. In the origional movie War of the Worlds, the "scary" aliens were shown to be bipedal with no head and three eyes in the middle of their chest. The recent terrorist executions were that much more horrible because they were done by beheading. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the bad guy was a "Headless" horseman. In the movie Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp, the killings were considered so much worse because the heads were taken.

Most of this is just rambling, but there is a point in there, although not one that anything can be done about. I just thought it was interesting.

Jeri

 

[Gene]

That is interesting indeed but not where my fear of spiders originated. I have a fear of puncture wounds, needles, or anything that sticks in or through a person. That combined with the fact that something could inject a venom compounded the issue.

Glad to say I have gotten over that for the most part.

 

[Greg Wolfe]

Arachnophobia dynamics...

Hi Jeri,
Yeah, I have often thought about why people recoil at spiders in general.
I have read where scientists portray that something is encoded in our genes to repel the thought of something with eight legs and no head crawling on our person. But, after years of keeping T's and researching this very subject I found that most children have no "encoded" fear of the big and hairy. They reach for it and want to play with it. For example, Sydney funnel web spider bites compose of many bites in Australia, the children reach for them and get bit.
We are taught from an early age that "bugs" are dirty and to stay away from them. Hence, retraining the mind to fear spiders. Of course, Hollywood has done a diservice to tarantulas with the beasts terrorizing towns and cities.
Most people that inquire about tarantulas with me assume the bigger the spider the more deadly it is. Then I commence my educational program to dispell the fear and myth regarding these magnificent creatures.
Consider this an addendum to your rambling...

 

[Adam]

That is an interesting point indeed. I didn't realize that until you pointed it out. However, my fear of creepy crawlies has to do with my fear of being bitten. I experience the fear even when I pick up a cricket, which I realize is silly. I just don't like the idea of a critter penetrating my skin

 

[JacenBeers]

I think a fear of spiders is something that is just passed on from person to person from when you are young. Almost like a word of mouth fear.

 

[sansoucie]

I think a fear of spiders is something that is just passed on from person to person from when you are young. Almost like a word of mouth fear.

I agree with this... to an extent. Arachnophobia is a "morbid fear" which isnt onthe lines of your garden variety fear of spiders I can only say this with confidence as my uncle is a true arachnophobic. I have never met another, so I use him a lot in examples! Its a panic attack, walk on water to get away from, and unreasonable fear.
Jeri has a point with the garden variety spider aversion, but I feel that most of the time we learn all fo our bad stuff from our parents When you mom runs screaming and swatting with a magazine at a grand daddy long legs.... you get the idea spiders are bad. Word of mouth fear is a pretty good description!

 

[Bark]

I always assumed webbing was the cause for most people's fears. One little spider can web up a whole bush and nothing seems to be able to escape its clutches. People are afraid of prisons, being buried alive, and what not because we are naturally afraid of being restrained. You can walk right into a web in someone's basement and then think "Ewww where is it? WHERE IS IT?". Most bugs have to fly into or jump onto you, but more often than not people walk into spiders.
Notice the most frightening part of any spider movie is the build up as the hero/heroine enters the cave full of web. Also, note how many times spiders have cocooned said heroes/heroines rendering them immobile until help arrives.

Not only can a spider restrain its victims, it is also armed with fangs. As Gene stated, people are afraid of being punctured. See children at the doctors office react to their first needle even though they don't know what it is. People are afraid of bats for this reason as well.

The only thing that monsters in horror movies do that spiders can't is fly... BUT WAIT!, when they dangle from the ceilings via their webs that kind of simulates flight. Don't even get on the topic of "ballooning".

Luckily, "If it bleeds we can kill it"... BUT WAIT! If you chop a limb or two off, the spider can grow them back (eventually).

Size is the last factor. In a lot of places the largest insects that humans frequently encounter are arachnids. Everytime I mow my lawn a whole family of Harvestmen w/ 2" leg spans come out to say "Hello"....

Ohh one last thing. The fact that spiders trap their pray makes them seem intelligent. Most creatures simply chase their prey or feed off of already dead items. Ever come across a web near a children's playground and think maybe the spider was going for a bigger prize?

 

[MANSON]

The fear of spiders for me wasnt necessarily(spelling) fearing spiders. But fearing bugs that bite. Like Adam said, i dont like getting bit, and neither do I. So if i was camping, pretty much anything that crawled on me i freaked out about, regardless if it was a spider or not, just for the fact that it could bite. If I was in the wild and someone told me that, this spider were looking at will not bite, i wouldnt be afraid of it at all. For me its just the fear of being bitten nothing more.

And i think thats what most people are afraid of, being bitten. Yeah they might say "I dont like the feel of it on my skin", but i think the truth is they dont want to get bitten, no matter how much it hurts. IMO

 

[xBurntBytheSunx]

i think one of my psychology teachers said its born with us...fear of snakes and spiders though...but who knows for sure?

 

[pitbulllady]

You did indeed hit upon something there! One of my best friends happens to be a pretty bad arachnophobe-bad enough that he once tried to jump out of my car, in which he was a passenger, as I was driving on the INTERSTATE in excess of 70 m.p.h., all because he spotted a TEENSY, tiny little spider which was OUTSIDE on the windshield wiper! One of his lines of reasoning to support his phobia is that anything that has eight eyes, but no head or face, and has fangs, but no mouth, HAS to be the embodiment of Pure Evil! Spiders are just so different from us vertebrates that they seem to be Evil Incarnate; the more different something is from us, the more we fear or loathe it. Snakes don't have legs, and cannot blink, and are covered with scales, rather than hair, so that creeps many people out. Phobic people will make any excuse, like alchoholics or drug addicts, to support their illness rather than try to deal with it and conquer it, most of the time.

pitbulllady

 

[Pheonixx]

how about a big thank you to Hollywood for the spider fear? they used an A. avic in the movie 8 legged freaks and made appear to act like some demonicly possesed OBT. avics are probibaly the most tolerant and docile T in the hobby.

 

[Yog-Sothoth]

Most likely cause: ignorance, mis-information.

 

[Zach33]

I think most of it starts in childhood by being startled by the common house spider. Atleast thats where my fear came from. Its not that I'm especially afraid of spiders I just don't like things crawling on me and surpising me when I don't know they are there. Most of the time it was a spider that was doing it...thus my fear of spiders.

 

[MyNameHere]

Most likely cause: ignorance, mis-information.

I think this says it all quite succinctly. On the other hand, I've heard said "unnamed scientists" postulating that there's something about humans where we're naturally afraid of anything that looks distinctly different from a human. The more not-human it looks, the more unsettled we'll be by it.

That said, I personally have never been afraid of snakes, bugs, spiders or other creepy-crawlies. I think it's more of a learned reaction kind of thing. Now, if a bug crawls or jumps on me and I'm not expecting it (especially if I don't see what it is doing the crawling) I'll automatically go into the most hilarious flinching oogey dance most people have seen. On the other hand, I'm much more afraid of being bitten by my pet mouse than I am by my T's. Even though the mouse could not possibly inject venom or leave little itchy hairs everywhere... tangents and branching paths and such...

 

[xBurntBytheSunx]

"I've heard said "unnamed scientists" postulating that there's something about humans where we're naturally afraid of anything that looks distinctly different from a human. The more not-human it looks, the more unsettled we'll be by it."


hmm well that is an interesting theory...but to add to that i don't think there is any coincidence that the aliens in horror movies look like bugs....friendly aliens, like in star trek, often look quite a bit like humans

 

[Yog-Sothoth]

I've heard said "unnamed scientists" postulating that there's something about humans where we're naturally afraid of anything that looks distinctly different from a human. The more not-human it looks, the more unsettled we'll be by it

Yeah Ive heard that too, have to agree with it for the most part. In addition to ignorance, and mis-information there is something else that drives the fear in other people...no idea what it is could be this. Ive noticed that some animals are instinctively afraid of some animals, like lions being deathly afraid of snakes even if they have never encountered one.

 

[Anansi]

Its funny he says that because reading charlottes web at a young age increased my fascination with spiders...However, fear of spiders (and many other things) is genetic...Its been passed on...Can you imagine if people had to continually decide what was dangerous and what wasnt?...Ill elaborate...The fear is genetic but it operates on classical conditioning...See the spider there is a fear response...In some people it is a curiosity response...It just depends on you were conditioned...were you around people who, when came in contact with a spider, killed it?...or picked it up in a napkin to take it outside?...Also how did the people around you react to spiders...Because that is a pretty big factor...So the genetics are there, and the classical conditioning principles enhance or lessen it...

 

[ShaunHolder]

I think it's a combination of bad rep, all those legs, and ignorance. It's ok to practice caution around a venomous creature, but some people take it to far.

 

[pitbulllady]

Its funny he says that because reading charlottes web at a young age increased my fascination with spiders...However, fear of spiders (and many other things) is genetic...Its been passed on...Can you imagine if people had to continually decide what was dangerous and what wasnt?...Ill elaborate...The fear is genetic but it operates on classical conditioning...See the spider there is a fear response...In some people it is a curiosity response...It just depends on you were conditioned...were you around people who, when came in contact with a spider, killed it?...or picked it up in a napkin to take it outside?...Also how did the people around you react to spiders...Because that is a pretty big factor...So the genetics are there, and the classical conditioning principles enhance or lessen it...

Actually, there have been several very conclusive studies comparing young human children and chimpanzees of similar developemental states, which have proven that there is absolutely NO genetic basis whatsoever for humans' fear of things like snakes, lizards, spiders, etc., while the chimps DO inherit such fears. Very young children, who haven't been exposed to adults who fear such animals, will show no fear of those themselves. This is one of the reason so many small kids get bitten by Sydney Funnel-Webs in Australia-the see the spiders and try to pick them up! Baby chimps, though, even when raised in isolation from other chimps, will show strong fear of such animals as snakes and spiders. Human children learn their fear, and that fear is largely influenced by culture. On the other hand, I have to wonder if there isn't a human gene that is responsible for people who are, from the start, fascinated by snakes or whatever. I have never feared them, have always been fond of reptiles, even when I was a todder drawing dragons and things on my grandfather's farm ledgers, and this was despite having a mother who was horribly phobic, and literally tried to beat the fear of snakes into me.

pitbulllady

 

[knightjar]

My girlfriend was a certfiable arachnophobe for most of her life. She was never fully able to explain what caused her fear, and would admit that it was not reasonable. Her terror ran to the extent of being unable to say the 's' word - it was always 'one of those things', and refusing to be in the same building as one. I was always worried that her fear would be passed on to our son, something that it was important to me to avoid, having always had a love of 'bugs'. She was cured on the London Zoo Friendly Spider course - a combination of education and mild hypnosis. Her fear turned to fascination and we now keep several tarantulas as well as a steadily growing menagerie of millipedes, scorpions, phasmids etc.

My son is now five and a half. He has been surrounded by spiders (in tanks mainly) for most of his life, and has been encouraged to interact with and admire them at every opportunity. It would be hard to find a better example of a well arachnically-educated child of his age. This summer however, he is afraid to go near the little garden Orb Weavers, and panicked completely when he found a tiny spider on his clothes. Anyone with a five year old will know that it is pretty hard to get a straight answer out of them, so I'm not sure what has brought this on. He has mentioned not wanting to touch web, and fear of being bitten. He is adamant that he is not bothered by any of the tarantulas, and will handle the various phasmids.

Maybe this backs up the genetic suggestion - perhaps he was pre-disposed to fear spiders and all our care and education meant nothing. Or maybe there has been some other influence that we don't know about. Either way, I hope it's something he can overcome.

Mike