Little Miss Muffet wasn't a Mister Muffet, perhaps for good reason. Surveys consistently show that women suffer from spider and snake phobias four times more often than men do. Why? Especially when other phobias, such as fear of injections, heights and flying, are documented more evenly among men and women.
David Rakison, a Carnegie Mellon University psychologist, recently tested 11-month-old human infant boys and girls on their reactions to spiders, snakes, and—for control purposes—flowers and mushrooms. As the babies viewed images of these things, cartoon drawings showing happy or fearful expressions also appeared. Extensive prior work on infants and non-human primates, such as chimps, shows these non-speaking test subjects make choices based on how long they look at something. In this case, the baby girls paired up the snake and spider images with the fearful face, indicating they associate spiders and snakes with fear. The infant boys didn't do this. Also, both the boys and girls did not pair up the mushroom and flower pics with the fearful face.
(Image: Project Gutenberg)
"Consistent with the greater incidence of snake and spider phobias in women, results show that female, but not male, infants learn rapidly to associate negative facial emotions with fear-relevant stimuli," Rakison concludes.
His study, accepted for publication in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, provides the first evidence that snake and spider fears and phobias seen in women may have their origin in infancy. This suggests women and men may possess different fear mechanisms, especially where creepy crawlies are concerned. Over time, there may have been "selection pressure on women to err on the side of caution with regard to recurrent threats, such as snakes and spiders," he proposes.
(Black widow; Credit: Steve Ryan)
"This may have been because they would have likely encountered them often during foraging and gathering and because of the potential cost to themselves and their offspring," he adds.
Conversely, "There would also have been less selection pressure for men to avoid these threats because of the need for risk-taking behavior, such as hunting."
My own view is that with any kind of similar predisposition—for low IQ, weight gain, athletic prowess or lack thereof, certain other fears and more—most, if not all, can be overcome based on the individual's environment and personal experience. It's better, though, to have these positive learning experiences early in life.
Tags: Animals
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