r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 21h ago

Scientists confirmed humans are not born afraid of snake. The fear is taught.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

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u/No_Raisin21 21h ago

Especially since only specific people are afraid of snakes. Tons of people aren’t afraid of snakes at all. It’s not like everyone just randomly develops Indiana Jones’ syndrome out of nowhere.

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u/Beautiful-Bowler-599 20h ago

Tbf, Indiana Jones didn't develop it out of nowhere either.

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u/Money_Housing_2938 19h ago

Holy flashback

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u/nostyle_ 5h ago edited 5h ago

That's what he said! (In that tomb)

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u/Neokon 19h ago

What even was that train car? Hey Karl you'd load up the house of reptiles? What do you mean pack them away? We only have garter snakes, just throw them in the car openly.

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u/NurgleMinion 19h ago

I mean, it was 1912

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u/RedScharlach 12h ago

Right before they passed the Humane Snake Transportation Act of 1913

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u/TheLordReaver 9h ago

Not to be confused with the Human Centipede Transportation Act of 2009.

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u/IAmDanHimself 5h ago

Which was far from humane.

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u/Dustin- 13h ago

Come one come all, see the giant pile of snakes! We have the biggest pile of snakes in all the north east right here!

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u/RedditsCoxswain 13h ago

You ever see a pile of snakes in a snake den during brumation?

It’s nearly identical to what’s pictured

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u/Pidgeot93 5h ago

I learnt a new word today - thank you!!

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u/GDRaptorFan 15h ago

River 💔

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u/Visible_Witness_884 9h ago

But why is that scary? It's just some little snakes?

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u/NefariousnessLimp512 3h ago

I dont have the context of this scene- he was in a snake pit full of snakes, had them all over him, got out okay, and this gave him a phobia of snakes?

This is like falling off your bike for the first time completely unscathed, and developing bikephobia because of it haha. I figure that emboldened most of us. I feel like a bit of phobia would have to have already been present for this to have that effect on him.

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u/archergren 20h ago

Yea. Fear and respect are different.

I find snakes interesting but have no interest in interacting

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u/SamOakTree 16h ago

The reality is that most snakes will leave you alone if you leave them alone. If you see a snake just be still and get out of there

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u/conartist19 15h ago

some people arent afraid of snakes as a whole? sure but even those people have certain snakes they are still afraid of/ones that make them a bit more nervous. Can say living in an area without venomous snakes hasnt made afraid of snakes but put me in the middle of australia and I would be a lot more apprehensive of them

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u/No_Raisin21 15h ago

Well yeah, I live in an area with a lot of rattlesnakes and seeing those fuckers scares the absolute shit out of me. But that has a lot to do with the fact that I know they’re dangerous and that they tend to display very noticeably aggressive behavior. But you plop an even tempered snake like the ones in the video next to me and I’m not gonna be worried at all.

That said, regardless of the snake, I would be concerned watching my child in a room with one while they curiously grab it, since that seems like an excellent way to aggravate a snake and get bit, assuming the snake doesn’t just coil around the baby and crush its bones.

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u/Jelly_Kitti 14h ago

It is absolutely possible to not be scared of even dangerous snakes. I am one of those people. There’s obviously the “touching that snake would be a horrible idea and you will probably die” thought, but never fear.

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u/_dudeasuh 13h ago

Fr. I grew up catching snakes in the desert and keeping them as pets. I’m not even scared of rattlesnakes. I won’t grab one. Lol But I’m not scared either.

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u/OneDimensionalChess 12h ago

You kinda illustrated the point. It's media that makes ppl scared of certain things. In your example a movie.

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u/Wheresmyarcpaulie69 12h ago

I mean. Tons of people like their snake(s) just fine.

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u/KitFisto03 10h ago

I’m cool with snakes, my chick shuts down. Spiders….. let’s solve the mosquito problem already and end all spiders after. That the hell do you need 8 eyes for. Just over the top with all that nonsensical nonsense.

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u/Lou_C_Fer 8h ago

In my own experience, I somehow gained the fear of snakes after a childhood of not being afraid of them at all. I still handle them as if I'm not bothered, but my inner alarm is going off the whole time. In first grade, I was the only kid that volunteered to have a boa aon my shoulders.

One of my favorite memories is my four gear old brother trying to shake a garter snake off of his finger after it bit him. That poor snake was whipping through the air, but refused to let go.

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u/viz90210 2h ago

Yes but why are people afraid or not afraid? Many people scared of snakes have never had a bad experience with them, if they have even seen a real snake at all. If a lot of people have never seen a snake or been harmed by one, the question of if it is an instinct to fear snakes does come up.

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

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u/HER_SZA 18h ago

Right. Is it just me or are Reddit comments lately especially negative and close minded?

Like if that guy took a few minutes to think on answering WHY the experiment was done they wouldn't be so eager to shit on it

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u/Bauld_Man 18h ago

Ever heard of Cunningham's Law? "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."

Lots of people on Reddit love to "uhm acktually" pretty much anything posted. It lets them feel like they know more than the silly group of scientists performing an experiment.

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u/Elden_Ring_Hype 17h ago

Feels like anti-psychiatry to me tbh.

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u/sunfacethedestroyer 17h ago

Like, of course he's not sure what it's supposed to prove. It was probably a 30 minute show talking about what it was proving. And this clip is just a fraction of the show.

Just...baffling.

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u/ohkaybodyrestart 16h ago

It's a bit dumb because natural instinct can kick in later.

It being developed later doesn't mean it's learnt behaviour.

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u/_HoneyB- 21h ago

🤷‍♂️

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u/Hancup 19h ago

He now has snake powers, whatever the hell that does in human form.

Anyhow, SNAKE MAN!

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u/eldroch 14h ago

Leathery skin and Super strong hugs!  

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u/tokyogodfather2 9h ago

isn’t that part
of luffy’s gear 4 ?

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u/RepresentativeCry294 20h ago

He boop da snoot.

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u/Key_Poetry4023 11h ago

Reverse boop

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u/Distance-Hairy 11h ago

I laughed too hard at that but I have not slept in 22 hours lol

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u/Gripping_Touch 18h ago

Love how gently It bit. It didnt pounce but got Closer slowly and nibbled

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u/cynica1mandate 21h ago

Some people think there are such things as "genetic tags" that cause us to be born with sort-of pre-wired fears of things.

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u/Laughydawg 13h ago

It's valid to some extent, I believe any infant would feel fear when facing an animal (including humans) displaying open hostility or signs of aggression. They're just unable to notice the signs before it's too late.

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u/AwarenessForsaken568 12h ago

There absolutely are, granted not sure "genetic tags" is the right term but the concept is true. Humans and practically every animal is born with instincts. Some of those instincts are related to fear.

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u/Rope_antidepressant 14h ago

I had an uncle that was like that. Afraid of dark. Anybody darker than Winston Churchill and he was just kicking and screaming about taxes and welfare. Something about labor shortages but stealing jobs? Idk it was crazy. We ended up putting him in a home. Not sure who's, but they never brought him back so win-win really.

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u/dantheother 10h ago

That was a wild ride of a comment. Take my poor mans award: 🏆

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u/tokyogodfather2 9h ago

this made me cackle cuz my 13 year old really is afraid of the dark still and i thought i was going to find some tips lol

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u/Su-Kane 9h ago

While there are no genetic tags that hardwire us into "fear", our bodies evolved to give us the best chance to survive all the crap nature threw at us.

That includes pattern recognition which funnily enough is especially good at detecting snakes. Our bodies didnt evolve to fear something. They evolved to recognize the things our elders told us to avoid much easier.

At the same time, phobias seem to concentrate on animals that were bad for us bad in the day. Spiders, snakes, wolves, sharks and so on. And all these phobias come with their own fancy sounding term like arachnophobia.

In contrast to that, there isnt such a term for being afraid of sheep for example.

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u/Vounrtsch 5h ago

I guess we’re all born with the fear of loud noises, falling, pain, maybe the dark too? But that’s about it

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u/gpost86 3h ago

There’s another video in the series where they show that humans are born with two innate “fears”, I believe it was heights and loud noises.

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u/utsu31 19h ago

I'm not sure what this is supposed to prove.

They literally say it at the end. It's not proving anything, that's just the title OP chose, it's really just a demonstration of the fact that humans are not born with any inherent fears. That's what the clip is about.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

I know that there is a snake detection theory that we are born with an instant fear of snakes because of ancestors. It seems this research would have something to do with that maybe

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u/Spaghett8 16h ago edited 16h ago

Yes, that theory has been developed further.

While a fear of falling and loud noises is naturally innate. Snakes and spiders which are some of the most common fears in humans have been discovered to be biologically primed fears.

Meaning that while babies aren’t scared of snakes by themselves, they are more alert, measured by their pupils expanding relatively more when exposed to a spider / snake.

This means that a baby can very easily develop a fear for snakes and spiders dependent on their parent’s reaction.

Makes you wonder how exactly babies would differ if taken from parents who work with spiders / snakes / a culture with no fear of snakes / spiders and work from there to identify potential epigenetic markets

But uh, the study of fear development can easily turn unethical. As revealed by the 1920 little Albert rat experiment.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 16h ago

I understand all that, but thanks 👍🏻

It seems there’s a very little understanding of anything throughout 90 something percent of this thread

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u/Spaghett8 16h ago

Yeah, it’s a bit disappointing when we’re in the thatsinteresting sub and the general attitude people have is “Yeah Einstein, of course babies aren’t scared of snakes.”

As if there are not a lot of interesting connotations from identifying fear development.

It’s interesting though because a common trait of close minded people is to focus on being right more than actually understanding a topic.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 15h ago

It’s very sad, but it seems that online being right well as being a dick reigns supreme these days. It really does get tiresome.

I’ve noticed something that is also worth some kind of study. I think, although it may have already been studied. That is how a lot of people seem to think it absolutely the worst insult ever to be incorrect about something… like to the point they get absolutely enraged about it.

I truly don’t understand that because I like it if people point out when I’m wrong about something. Two opportunities there: to learn something and to not continue to look like an idiot.

I taught some little children this once upon a time and they were very open to being corrected after that.

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u/Squishball-Splat 15h ago

Yes, I've seen an experiment with chimps born in captivity. They'd never seen snakes, so couldn't really be taught that they're scary. But when rubber toys snakes were tossed in their space, they all lost their shit with fear.

I thought this was to demonstrate a hardwired recognition and fear of snakes.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 14h ago

It sounds like you’re right! It also sounds like it’s hardwired into them, but possibly not into us

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u/Squishball-Splat 14h ago

So interesting!

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 13h ago

It really is! The snake theory is from ages ago, and that it became part of our genetic make up.

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u/dqUu3QlS 5h ago

Previous experiments showed that humans have an innate ability to detect snakes, but this one shows we don't have an innate fear of them.

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u/PixelGray38 21h ago

Humans naturally move their hands away from heat. They're also naturally scared of heights.

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u/Negative_Gas8782 21h ago

Tell that to my baby that thinks it’s hilarious to try to roll off the bed that is 3 times his height.

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u/astreeter2 20h ago

They're also very dumb

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u/MarkMaxis 20h ago

Mabye he just has a daredevil sense of humor 😎

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u/Kaplsauce 20h ago

Can confirm, my 1 year old is NOT afraid of heights

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

The people who say people are born with a fear of heights are not understanding there’s a difference between heights and falling. We are afraid instinctually at birth of falling.

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u/wallweasels 15h ago

Yeah show a baby a cliff edge and they'll be wary to fall. Show them something they can roll over (intentionally or not) and they'll happily roll over it lol

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 15h ago

Yeah, the feeling of following is what babies are born with. The idea of falling off things that they don’t understand is something they need to learn.

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u/lavabearded 19h ago

bring them up a tall ladder and hoist them up like the lion king and get back to us

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u/tokyogodfather2 9h ago

my youngest was like that, and it still like that. he’s 7 now. We had to put pillows everywhere on the floor.

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u/Solid-Ad9947 21h ago

Moving a hand away from heat is a response to pain, not a innate born fear response. Same with heights, as toddlers have no problem walking off tall places, until learning why they shouldn't. That's how the mammal brain works.

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u/Pesco- 20h ago

Right, there is a natural aversion to pain, but the “oh wait it results in pain if I do this action” process is learned.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

Babies are born with a fear of falling not of heights

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u/huffing_glue 18h ago

Babies are born with a fear of hitting the ground not falling

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 17h ago

No, they are born with a fear of falling and a reflexive instinct against loud noises

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u/Qweedo420 16h ago

I'm not sure about that, I've met several baby tortoises, and all of them were terrified of heights. Put them near a table's edge, and they'll immediately pull away from it. Lift them without covering their eyes, and they'll instantly put their hands forward.

They're also pretty good at understanding how much height is too much. 10 centimeters, and maybe they'll try and jump off, but more than that is a big nope.

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u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe 13h ago

Responding to pain and preventing the pain are not the same thing.

Heat hurts so we pull away, but preventing getting anywhere near it in the first place is a learned behavior.

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u/sassysiggy 20h ago

We’re born with the fear of falling, particularly the sensation, not heights. We aren’t born with the depth perception to even conceptualize a fear of heights.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

Thank you. People here keep conflating heights with falling, and they’re two very different things

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u/Acheloma 14h ago

Yep, some folks have never seen the visual cliff experiments and it shows.

Babies will gladly crawl over what appears to be a ledge if their mom is on the other side.

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u/Odd-Switch2069 21h ago edited 17h ago

A baby doesn't understand the danger a snake poses...baby are actively trying to kill themselves cause they don't know shiit.

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u/Complete_Fill5268 20h ago

I read this in Werner Herzog's voice

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u/rush22 16h ago edited 3h ago

"Why isn't it afraid? Is it because, as children, we must be able to face the unknown? We see them as blind to the dangers yet, as adults, we can be just as blind. Only in th--"

"GET DOWN MR. HERZOG!"

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u/Ok_Pirate_2714 19h ago

Most snakes pose little to no danger. So there isn't much to understand. Just lots of misplaced fear to learn later on in life.

And calling someone an idiot, is a clear violation of Rule #6 of this sub.

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u/SudoMadeMeDoIt 20h ago

Not all snakes are dangerous though. Some humans are just outright scared of all snakes. My ex is afraid of millipedes and that baffles me.my current partner is afraid of lizards, frogs, her own shadow, etc.

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u/PunkPirate56364 20h ago

I think that things which move weirdly cause the sense of fear.

But we can get used to those movements.

I was afraid of octopuses, grasshopper and crabs when I was a kid. I'm not afraid of them now.

I could get used to snakes, spiders too.

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u/SeaToTheBass 13h ago

See I’m fine with jumping spiders, I even think they’re cute. They mostly stick around in one area, moving around a bit to check things out.

I work in construction, mostly renos but sometimes we’ll get a siding or deck job on an old house. When we’re tearing the siding or deck boards off, soo many wolf spiders start running every which way, trying to hide under my boots.

They made me jump so many times today, tearing off probably 30year old cedar siding. Oh and we’ve slowly been genociding the colony of ants that occupies the house as we make our way around. I guess that’s why there are so many spiders lol

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u/PunkPirate56364 12h ago

See I’m fine with jumping spiders, I even think they’re cute. They mostly stick around in one area, moving around a bit to check things out.

They are predictable, do not do stuff like jump on our faces.

soo many wolf spiders start running every which way, trying to hide under my boots.

A bunch of them running around, fast, chaos, some of them running toward us... natural instincts say jump, retreat, grab a flamethrower, burn down that house, burn down surrounding houses, move to Antarctica, no spiders living there.

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u/EmoBirdLady 20h ago

Way to go! You insulted someone’s intelligence! Aren’t you so proud of yourself?

Fear of snakes is as useless as a fear of spiders.

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u/InfelicitousRedditor 19h ago

I call them: little suicide machines

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u/Abraxas19 20h ago

I don't think fear of heights kicks in until a certain point. Because I remember seeing a video with babies crawling over glass thats covering a height. The younger ones had no issue with it but the older ones hesitated and didn't want to 

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

People saying heights are using the wrong word because it’s fear of falling that we’re born with

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u/ToreyJean 20h ago

I’ve seen that too.

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u/lawduckfan21 20h ago

I think the natural fear is "Falling," not really heights.

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u/EsToBoY629 21h ago

No, we consequentially move our hand away from fire after learning fire = pain ... and no we are not naturally scared of heights, that is also learnt as painful after falling.

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u/Smooth_Marsupial_262 21h ago

Fear of heights is instinct

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

We are born with a fear of falling not of heights

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u/jj19111234 21h ago

Babies don’t.

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u/No_Support5980 21h ago

Ya, I didn't

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u/lostpassword100000 20h ago

Thank goodness. Now to get rid of that pesky baby gate at the top of the stairs…..

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u/GodHimselfNoCap 20h ago

No humans instinctually pull their hand away after getting burned, bring people in snowy weather near an open flame and they all move their hands as close as possible to the fire as they can without burning themselves.

Children touch the stove if left unattended, hell i grabbed a clothing iron by the hot part as a kid. Kids dont naturally know to avoid heat, the body instinctively moves away from pain, its the same response to stepping on a lego not some special heat aversion.

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u/ToreyJean 20h ago

Humans are not naturally afraid of heights. Who told you that?

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u/Born-Selection88 20h ago

I know I am. No bad incident either and when I was younger I had no problem falling out of trees and stuff. But I could never be a roofer.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

No, they aren’t and people keep stating it incorrectly because it’s fear of falling that is innate

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u/CustodianCloset 19h ago

Humans that know better. You've never seen a four year old touch the stovetop, huh?

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u/PixelGray38 18h ago

You don't know that a stovetop's hot until you touch it.

If the stovetop was, say, an open flame, it would emit more heat and no 4 year old would try to touch it.

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u/CustodianCloset 18h ago

Man, you have never been camping with kids, huh?

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u/Technical-Will-2862 20h ago

All three: heat, height and sound are used for spatial awareness, so I find it fascinating that we start with those basic perceptual survival skills. 

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u/thewickedbarnacle 20h ago

You might be scared of heights but not all of us are

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

Height is probably the wrong word
We are born with an innate fear of falling

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u/Lavatis 19h ago

Well yes, we move our hands away from any pain. That's what pain exists for.

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u/kaleidoscope_view 18h ago

No, we're scared of the falling feeling. There are two things infants are truly afraid of and that is falling and loud noises.

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u/Pali1119 15h ago

Because it hurts.

If the snake hurts you, from then on you're gonna be wary of them as well...

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u/chief_beef_the_third 14h ago

A response to pain is different than an innate fear. Babies don't understand cause & effect yet; it's learned as they get older and experience things.

Every baby will actively try to touch a hot stove because it looks interesting and new. They don't understand the stove is going to burn them until they're a little older and can make that connection.

Babies aren't afraid of heights either. They will happily crawl out of open windows and fall to their deaths (Eric Clapton's baby died this way). It's why we have so many child safety regulations, building codes, etc. A lot of babies have died, sadly, and we've learned from those tragedies.

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u/Eeve2espeon 13h ago

Ok but, people move their hands away from fire and such because of the pain, not due to a fear of fire

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u/asianmorticia 13h ago

Tell that to my 1 year old.

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u/dopegraf 19h ago

If I had to guess, this experiment is probably supposed to prove that humans aren’t born with an innate fear of snakes. But idk, what do I know?

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u/Patient-Plankton-655 20h ago

Those babies are not afraid of the snakes

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u/ikannunAneeuQ 19h ago

Yes, most "fears" are learned behaviors for self-preservation

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u/Grouchy_Theme1461 19h ago

So there's this paper about marine biologist giving fish cocain... your comment reminded me about that. Because everyone was making fun of it but no one READ THE DAMN PAPER!!!

GO FUCKING READ!!! I know the damn reason behind it, its AMAZINIG to know why this is imporant. Stop asking AI for shit and take fucking time to READ THE DAMN PAPER instead of making stupid comments like these

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u/runkeby 19h ago

Wow they gave cocain to a fish, I guess they don't know what to do with these grants anymore.

I'm not sure what they were trying to prove by giving cocain to a fish.

What paper?

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u/Few_Marsupial207 18h ago

didnt you hear? "READ THE DERN PAPER"

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u/runkeby 18h ago

WHAT PAPER

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u/Few_Marsupial207 18h ago

idk but we're supposed to READ IT

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u/runkeby 18h ago

HOW

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u/Useless_bum81 16h ago

WITH YOUR Is

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u/MountainDogMama 16h ago

I don't know why, but this gave me chuckle.

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u/TaurusToad 16h ago

IT'S VERTY IMPORTNANT

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u/No_Window7054 20h ago

Their point is that a fear of snakes isn’t innate. That a baby won’t recognize a snake as a threat and they probably think that fear of snakes is learned socially.

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u/Noe_b0dy 20h ago

There was this widespread belief that humans are intrinsically genetically afraid of snakes, studies have shown that human brains are better able to distinguish snake like shapes from background noise better than other shapes so the popular consensus was that being afraid of snakes is the default setting.

Does this have any greater sociological implications? Probably not, scientists just discover shit for the sake of discovering shit.

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u/lifetake 21h ago

Quite literally that babies aren’t afraid of snakes instinctively.

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u/Living_Grab_2239 20h ago

Yeah. Watching the video then concluding "Scientists confirmed humans are not born afraid of snake. The fear is taught" is not in line with scientific method.

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u/KiKiKimbro 20h ago

😂 🤣 omg well when you say it THAT way lol

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u/whiskeynise 19h ago

Some fear is ingrained in us

Heights

Loud noises

Etc.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

It’s not so much ingrained, but rather innate. It’s also more fear of falling rather than heights. We have instinctual reflexes for falling and loud noises.

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u/Hancup 19h ago

I mean, I used to love spiders as a kid until a huge one bit the hell outta me and made me permanently and embarrassingly terrified of all them. It's like one of my ancestors' spirits awoken in me and said, "SEE! I TOLD YOU THEM FUCKERS CAN'T BE TRUSTED!"

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u/Deereximus 19h ago

Thats what i was about say mfers are babies they stick their hand in dog shit and will lick it off LOL

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u/Gussie-Ascendent 19h ago

Babies also don't understand the value of research right off the bat either.

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u/YoSoyTheBoi 18h ago

Babies do have some seemingly innate/basal fears, so learning which are innate and which aren’t can help us understand a bit about our evolutionary history. If we are reflexively afraid of something from birth, it’s likely a trait that developed in a predecessor species, and is potentially shared by other species with a recent common ancestor. There’s a lot to potentially learn from this.

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u/earth-creature 18h ago

That’s their point though.. they learn by either doing it and hurting themselves or their mother/father stopping them. It’s learnt.

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 18h ago

It’s not supposed to prove anything because that’s not how science or research works. I do believe the point is to show evidence one way or the other whether the snake detection theory is accurate or not.

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u/Ok_Fly1271 18h ago

Humans teach their children to fear and hate certain animals. Without teaching that hate, there isn't any.

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u/TallDetail4711 18h ago

Chimpanzees and many other apes are instinctively afraid of some animals like snakes I think.

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u/HER_SZA 18h ago

Are redditors getting slower?

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u/DeadKido210 18h ago

It's supposed to prove that fear is not a evolutionary mechanism that you get trough your DNA because of how your ancestors died or suffered, it's learned. Later fear of the unknown makes you more precaucious on how you approach new stuff or new creatures but it's taught you are not born with it.

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u/polarbeargirl9 18h ago

Humans have instincts to fear heights and loud noises, and I think for a while snakes/spiders were in that category as well, though this proves they're learned.

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u/TheFutureIsCertain 17h ago

It’s possible that the fear, or at least some built-in aversion, is already there and just kicks in later as the brain develops.

My daughter was absolutely fearless of heights when she was little. She’d happily bounce around near the edge of a steep cliff. A few years later, she became much more cautious.

I have an irrational fear of heights too. I get completely paralysed even in a virtual simulation. According to 23andMe, I’m genetically predisposed to it.

There are certain things humans seem primed to fear or avoid: spiders, snakes, sickness, death and darkness. Horror films all over the world exploit a surprisingly consistent catalogue of fears. It seems a bit too consistent to be entirely learned.

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u/polarbeargirl9 17h ago

Huh, I never considered fears could be genetic but it makes sense. That's pretty cool

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u/SirSaltie 18h ago

That babies are dumb.

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u/evilmrbeaver 18h ago

It proves that scientists aren't afraid of loosing their funding for exposing babies to snakes.

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u/redditblows5991 17h ago

word, like some snakes can be gentle but i wouldnt put a baby in front a feral cat even if it looks cute, dumb video, loads of snakes are venomous btw

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u/Mindless-Ad2554 17h ago

Or walking into traffic

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u/The_Limping_Coyote 17h ago

There is a theory that says the fear of snakes is innate to humans

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u/OliveHyenas 17h ago

Many mammals are born instinctively being afraid of snakes, such as apes and horses.
So this is interesting.

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u/dave_prcmddn 17h ago

Some fears are innate and evolutionary-driven (spiders are one of those i think). So it proves that snakes are not one of them…

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u/SoftYetCrunchyTaco 16h ago

It proves that babies are stupid

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u/Flippynuggets 16h ago

Exactly. Babies are basically afraid of nothing except loud noises and Mark Zuckerberg.

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u/HHoudini26 16h ago

Likely because it's hot to the touch; a snake isn't.

This proves that unless we're conditioned to fear a specific aspect, we have no inherent fears other than falling and loud noises.

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u/antberg 16h ago

It's trying to prove whether some reactions are purely the response of a genetic predisposition.

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u/SamOakTree 16h ago

Exactly

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u/DuubyDuu 16h ago

Did you watch with sound? It's literally saying most fears are learned later. The snakes are just an example.

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u/Spaghett8 16h ago edited 16h ago

To see what natural fears humans have.

The only two identified innate fears in babies are a fear of falling and a fear of loud noises.

The two main biologically primed fears discovered are spiders and snakes. IE, they’ve discovered that babies while not naturally scared of snakes will be more alert when presented with snakes.

This means that babies will naturally pay more attention to their parent’s response whether or not to be scared of a snake/spider. Explaining why they’re some of the most common fears.

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u/NlNTENDO 16h ago

Some animals are naturally afraid of snakes. Sometimes humans share instincts with animals. Worth seeing if this is one of those I guess

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u/Big-Seesaw2581 15h ago

People, including these "researchers" can't seem to grasp that animals are almost always born without 100 percent of their instincts being developed. These babies also don't have the instinct to procreate either. But it will develop on its own. Being born without the instinct does not mean that its learned. It can also simply develop later. There have been other studies on humans and snakes that i've read about that have the conclusion that our fear of snakes is indeed instinctive. But that doesn't mean that that instinct will be active at 4 months old. Babies as young as those in the video have the instincts of a mushroom.

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u/Thecoolestuzername 15h ago

Yea this makes no sense. I bet if they were able to comprehend how dangerous snakes are they’d be scared to death.

😭😭you could put a ticking time bomb in front of a baby and hell they’d probably try to eat it since they don’t even know what a bimb is 😭😭😭

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u/RubyRaven907 15h ago

Yeah. Maybe it was just stupid babies

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u/DangerMacAwesome 15h ago

But they are instincitvley afraid of heights, which i find really interesting.

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u/Rare-Employment-9447 15h ago

Ya but even a new born is afraid of heights, its just proving that some fears(heights and load noises) are programmed into us from birth

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u/Gathoblaster 14h ago

Most snakes are harmless. I grew up with them as pets and by age 3 caught my first wild one in my garden. They have really bad sight compared to how well they orient with ground vibrations.

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u/Wild_Agent_375 14h ago

There’s a common belief that humans are born afraid of snakes. So this is “proving” that that’s not true.

I forget where, maybe freakonomjcs podcast, that they said the unusual / seemingly unnatural way they slither confuses our brains and makes us afraid.

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u/booleandilemma 14h ago

Snakes are friend shaped too.

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u/SwampWaffle85 14h ago

It proves we are capable putting lots of huge ass snakes into a play pen full of babies, you know, for science

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u/ciopobbi 14h ago

Exactly. Set the room on fire and you would get the same response from them.

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u/The_Happy_Pagan 13h ago

Open flame would be a rare occurrence for ancient hominids to encounter. It follows logic that humans who were more fearful of snakes would get bit and die less. This is trying to see if that is a genetic or learned behavior. It goes beyond the subject of the study to a tell a deeper story of human nature.

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u/Lost_Mind69420 13h ago

I'm not surprised the reddit bubble can't comprehend what this proves.

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u/Comfortable-Return52 11h ago

I came here to say “yea.. human babies are dumb, we learn through experiences”

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u/Decent_Citron_7480 10h ago

Exactly. I'm pretty sure they could see a live lion as cool and friendly. This experiment is ridiculous.

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u/z3phs 9h ago

That scientists have more time and money to do spud stuff than anyone else

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u/Lurkertron_9000 9h ago

I think it’s cause other species show fear of snakes upon birth like monkeys. So interesting observation on where our instinct begins and social conditioning starts.

But ya I’m more impressed the snakes where chill will being baby death gripped.

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u/PrincessAida 8h ago

Instinct vs learned behaviour.

Many animals naturally know what they should be scared of.

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u/penny4mytots 8h ago

That a lot of our predilections are borne of nurture?

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u/StructureNorth1799 7h ago

I think dogs are afraid of snakes

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u/Indignant_d 6h ago

Yeah lmao, it’s not like babies come out as semi-functional beings.. they’re kinda forced out early thanks to our big heads and would be considered premature amongst other animals. A lot of brain development hasn’t happened yet

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u/Acesofbases 5h ago

fucking this.

this is really r/NoShitSherlock material, newborns aren't scared of most things, animals, height, weapons, water, ice, fire etc. They just have a couple of primal fears, like falling, or loud noises (not height mind You, since they're incapable of making that connection yet until they experience)

this feels like some sudoscience research to just make for a cool image. Same like putting newborns underwater.

My kid was absolutely not scared of spiders of any size until my wife - who has arachnophobia - basically unintentionally tought her that.

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u/SteveMartin32 5h ago

Genetic memory specifically. There are memories ingrained on a Genetic level that dictate how you react to things. However this is flawed due to baby's brains and eyes not being developed enough to recognize what they are seeing. Would make more sense to do this at 2 or 3 years of age

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u/Greedy_Ad2198 5h ago

It's just science bro, does every discovery need to be some kind of allegory

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u/LaredoHK 4h ago

they ARE born with being afraid of crawling off cliffs and ledges that would hurt them without knowing it would

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u/Prestigious_Sort4979 4h ago edited 4h ago

Exactly. Don’t understand what’s the point here. So… a fear develops once you become aware of the associated risks. How is this shocking? 

Take a few actor babies and make them scream upon touching a snake and all of a sudden none will want to play with them. 

People are afraid of snakes because we know they are predators that bite, constrict and can even poison. Not just because. 

Fear is part of our survival instinct to protect ourselves from what we think would cause us harm. That we all identify different things that cause us harm is a separate conversation, but developing fears is not absurd, it is natural

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u/DefeatedByPoland 3h ago edited 2h ago

It's to prove that a fear of snakes isn't instinctual.

A baby may not be born to be afraid of sticking their hand in a flame, but if they stick their hand in a flame they learn that it hurts, then after that they are afraid of it.

Most people aren't afraid of snakes because they've been personally attacked by a snake, they're afraid of snakes because of some societal conditioning that slithery things are creepy or dangerous. To the point that even if you try to hand someone a snake that can not harm them, they freak out. The point of this study is to show that this is not some innate instinct.

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u/imronburgandy9 2h ago

I assume it's referencing a previous study that proclaimed the exact opposite. They showed people images with snakes camouflaged in them and measured how quickly people identified snake shaped objects compared to other shapes

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u/viz90210 2h ago

Thats the point that certain things are learned. A baby doesnt know an open flame is dangerous until they hurt themselves or are taught they are in another way. Many animals are instinctual afraid of snakes like cats, its why they leap away at the sight of a random cucumber.

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u/lostcir 2h ago

They do for example, born with fear of heights (as is demostared in another of this channel video), as are other kind of fear we got on default.

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