Good news for those who are afraid of snakes: We have evolved to be afraid of snakes

Snakes are poisonous, but they are much smaller than humans. Obviously, they are not afraid of people, why should we fear them?

People are a sensitive creature. We have a lot of different fears: fear of heights, fear of rats, fear of insects, fear . holes . But perhaps, most of us, though more or less, have a common fear. is about snakes.

In fact, fear of snakes is one of the most common fears. However, look at the logical side of the problem: snakes are poisonous, but are much smaller than humans. Obviously, they are not afraid of people, why should we fear them?

Picture 1 of Good news for those who are afraid of snakes: We have evolved to be afraid of snakes
Fear of snakes is one of the most common fears.

We are not afraid of snakes from babies, but recognize snakes very quickly

Snake fear has an amazing popularity. We obviously do not always see snakes, but that fear is in everyone.

But more importantly, not that we were afraid of snakes from babies. Children aged 1 - 2 years are rarely afraid of snakes, but they are able to detect snakes very quickly. And just having a bad memory with snakes, or simply watching a snake documentary is enough for them to "learn to scare" this animal.

Picture 2 of Good news for those who are afraid of snakes: We have evolved to be afraid of snakes
People evolved to feel afraid of snakes.

But why is there such a strange phenomenon?

The answer lies in the evolutionary process , and in fact it plays a very important role

Specifically, psychologists from the University of Virginia said that humans have evolved to feel afraid of snakes (and spiders too). They conducted an experiment in which both adults and children were observed to observe some pictures of wild animals.

Two groups will be able to observe pictures of two types: snakes between color-coinciding organisms: toads, flowers, worms . The second form is other organisms in the middle of a group of snakes.

They found that both groups of subjects could realize the image of snakes faster . This may seem like an evolutionary trait, because when humans can sense snakes faster, their ability to survive in nature is also bigger.

Picture 3 of Good news for those who are afraid of snakes: We have evolved to be afraid of snakes
When people can sense snakes faster, the ability to survive in nature is also greater.

In addition, they performed similar experiments with spiders, and the results were the same."Snakes and spiders are dangerous creatures but it is difficult to detect. The old people have to face them every day, and it has formed a fear" - Vanessa LoBue, Ph.D. at the University of Virginia said.

"Through evolutionary history, people have learned how to fear snakes as quickly as possible, in order to create conditions for better survival and rotation."

"This ability seems to have been circulated in our genome."

In short, we humans evolve to fear snakes. You can choose to respect that evolution and stay away from the snakes, that's okay.