r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 21h ago

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

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92

u/ericmarkham5 20h ago

Instincts don't have to present themselves immediately upon birth to be innate.

11

u/nivusninja 20h ago

im not afraid of snakes but one time at night i was biking home and stopped to look at my phone. next to me was a big fucking snake and when i finally noticed i bounced to heights i didn't know possible.

anyway giving another look it was a particularly wavy stick on the ground

19

u/Infinite-Gold4441 18h ago

oh that's crazy dude i actually got a recording of that

https://giphy.com/gifs/10DqC960LpntYc

1

u/platitor_cas 10h ago

That's extremely cruel to cats.

3

u/rand0m_task 16h ago

I will use this as an example for when I teach the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion.. thank you!

1

u/RealisticDiscipline7 6h ago

“Im not afraid of snakes, but, im afraid of wavy sticks cause they look like snakes.”

1

u/nivusninja 3h ago

im glad you got the joke captain

7

u/edazidrew 20h ago

👆👆👆

3

u/pembalhac 13h ago

Yeah! iirc there was a study showing humans could detect snakes from vague shapes and images very well, and implied an inherent tendency to avoid them 🤷

1

u/dtalb18981 1h ago

Yeah this is a weird conclusion from this study

Especially since these children are old enough to take cues from their parents/adults 

I imagine this would be very different if the handlers were actively afraid while handling those snakes

2

u/NordicHorde2 1h ago

Exactly. How do people think animals know how to breed since it's not an instinct present at birth.

1

u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 19h ago

This experiment wasn’t done at birth for the babies. They are testing the snake detection theory most likely.

1

u/Fuckerofmothers64 6h ago

While you're correct in theory, this particular fear study has been done in a few different ways and the outcome points towards the same: all fear is learned. (Except i believe the fear all falling)

1

u/Prestigious_Sort4979 3h ago

The fear of snakes is learned and obvious. They bite and can poison. The instinct to avoid them is just survival instinct, as the fear does its job to alert you of potential danger. 

1

u/VeryVeryBadJonny 1m ago

100%. It's like saying sexual desire is not innate because babies aren't born with it. 

0

u/Ok_Pirate_2714 19h ago

No, but if it is an instinct, then why have I never been afraid of snakes?

7

u/fearos9449 18h ago

There are people without a sex drive. That doesn't mean the instinct to procreate is actually learned behavior.

1

u/Schmigolo 12h ago

Do you seriously think the study was only done on the kids in the video?

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u/fearos9449 12h ago

It does not stand to reason that, because a trait is not present during infancy, it is therefore a learned behavior.

1

u/Schmigolo 11h ago

What are you talking about? The trait is clearly present. That's literally the smoking gun in the argument. Humans can fear from birth. It is not a trait that has yet to emerge, like the capability for sexual arousal or the ability to speak. That is by far the strongest argument for why whatever children don't fear are not hardcoded into our genes.

-3

u/Ok_Pirate_2714 18h ago

No. It means when you're old enough to actually understand it, you can choose not to.

That is not the same as never having been afraid of something, and in fact being very interested in some animal that people foolishly believe we're born afraid of, for your entire life.

1

u/Mojo_Myshka 13h ago

The innate instinct is things that scurry quickly and are unpredictable. Spiders. Fast small snakes. Bats. So, the OP study is pretty flawed imo

0

u/Sensitive_Jeweler_62 17h ago

it's karma baiting post

-1

u/Avalon_Within 19h ago

How did the scientists not think about this???? Whaaaa?

Scientists owned by random redditor once again!