Fear of Snakes Innate
March 5th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
By Clara Moskowitz
updated 1:22 p.m. ET, Wed., March. 5, 2008
Fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias, yet many people have never seen a snake in person. So how is this fear generated? New research suggests humans have evolved an innate tendency to sense snakes — and spiders, too — and to learn to fear them. Psychologists found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars. The researchers think this ability helped humans survive in the wild.
