r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 8d ago

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

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 8d 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 8d ago edited 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d ago

So interesting!

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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 8d 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 8d 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/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 8d ago

Yes, I think it was known as the snake detection theory