Why are people afraid of Spiders? We should be freaking out when we see another human.

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[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Disgust is a mostly learned / trained emotion. But i am too lazy to search a source for this in this moment.

I always have liked spiders and snakes. Some of nature's best and / or most specialized hunters imho.

Spiders even care for their offspring very well which is kind of fascinating for a not state-building insect with this brain / weight relation.

If i already didn't do so many other topics in my personal studies i surely would be more into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomology .

[–]VirgilGriff 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Disgust is a mostly learned / trained emotion.

Bullshit. Fear of snakes, spiders, and other beasties is cross-cultural and cuts across time, language, and culture. It's why every culture has a concept of a dragon, which is something like a predatory bird combined with a snake combined with a cat.

If you take a rat that's never even seen a cat and put cat urine in its enclosure, it'll back into a corner and scream (ultrasonically) for three days straight.

We're descended from tree-dwelling critters that had millions of years to learn who its predators were.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I too have read before that genetically, the majority of humans have inherited the fear for things like snakes.. there are certain living beings that make your skin crawl, give you goose bumps, or make you jump if they catch you by surprise.. These may vary between individual, but there's usually a common fear people share like tarantulas or snakes (yes, a certain portion of the population is chill with them).. This is genetically inherit, from years of nomadic living and survival purposes. It's a defense mechanism: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/10/infant-fear-phobia-science-snakes-video-spd/#

Imagine you walked into your apartment or home or bedroom, and were surprised by a gigantic furry tarantula, or a small kitten.. Your reaction would vary greatly, even if both were harmless to you.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I don't deny we inherited some of this. BUT look at owners of these exotics animals e.g. : They unlearned this fear / disgust most likely for most parts.

While in "normal" people with a normal upbringing and education it is surely strengthened.

And: Fear and disgust are different emotions that is a proven fact.

Maybe it is perceived differently if you live in Australia, that i'll give you. Because Australia has afaik the most poisonous wildlife.

I never even would come near they idea to conclude from rodent behavior to that of humans but that is your type of conclusion pattern not mine, i just wanna distance myself from this clearly.

Culture, myths, legends and religion are a bunch of whole separate topics when compared to behavior, imho. Because for all all these topics you need time to think to devise and understand them. While purely emotional reactions / behavior usually happens in a split second and is required to be quite precise from an evolutionary point of view.

[–]zyxzevn🐈‍⬛ 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What about using Yeast instead?
video: I grew real spider silk using yeast

[–]wuzizname 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Arguably, spiders actually benefit humans by eating other insects that harm us a lot more, like mosquitoes.

It's possible that we've evolved to have an adverse reaction to spiders because at some time in our evolutionary history there were poisonous spiders that caused real harm and we passed on a natural response to avoid ALL spiders like we generally have the same adverse reaction to ALL snakes even though most snakes are not harmful.

It's also possible that spiders are just so biologically different than humans that we have a natural adversion to them. That and they are sneaky, live in dark places and ambush their prey in creepy ways... and like the bats and all the other slimy things that hunt in dark places, we generally avoid all of them.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's possible that we've evolved to have an adverse reaction to spiders because at some time in our evolutionary history there were poisonous spiders that caused real harm and we passed on a natural response to avoid ALL spiders

You're right!

[–]chadwickofwv 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Not to mention that spiders used to be a whole lot bigger.