Abstract
Spiders are mostly harmless, yet they often trigger high levels of both fear and disgust, and arachnophobia (the phobia of spiders) ranks among the most common specific animal phobias. To investigate this apparent paradox, we turned to the only close relatives of spiders that pose a real danger to humans: scorpions. We adopted a unique methodology in order to assess authentic emotions elicited by arthropods. Over 300 respondents were asked to rate live specimens of 62 arthropod species (including spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, and other insects) based on perceived fear, disgust, and beauty. We found that species’ scores on all three scales depended on the higher taxon as well as on body size. Spiders, scorpions, and other arachnids scored the highest in fear and disgust, while beetles and crabs scored the highest in beauty. Moreover, all chelicerates were perceived as one cohesive group, distinct from other arthropods, such as insects or crabs. Based on these results, we hypothesize that the fear of spiders might be triggered by a generalized fear of chelicerates, with scorpions being the original stimulus that signals danger.
Highlights
Spiders are mostly harmless, yet they often trigger high levels of both fear and disgust, and arachnophobia ranks among the most common specific animal phobias
If spiders represented a real danger to our ancestors a fast fear response would be positively selected during the human evolution
As the interaction did not prove significant (α = 0.05) in any of the models, it was removed. We examined these relationships using generalized mixed effect models (GLMM) with binomial error distribution, where respondents’ identity was treated as a random factor
Summary
Spiders are mostly harmless, yet they often trigger high levels of both fear and disgust, and arachnophobia (the phobia of spiders) ranks among the most common specific animal phobias. To investigate this apparent paradox, we turned to the only close relatives of spiders that pose a real danger to humans: scorpions. The coevolution of human ancestors and dangerous spider species is the key assumption in evolutionary oriented hypothesis of negative emotions associated with spiders. In light of these factors, the intense negative emotions commonly triggered by spiders seem rather odd
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