Abstract

BackgroundFear acquisition of certain stimuli, such as snakes, is thought to be rapid, resistant to extinction, and easily transferable onto other similar objects. It has been hypothesized that due to increased survival chances, preparedness to instantly acquire fear towards evolutionary threats has been hardwired into neural pathways of the primate brain. Here, we compare participants’ fear of snakes according to experience; from those who often deal with snakes and even suffer snakebites to those unfamiliar with snakes.MethodsThe Snake Questionnaire-12 (SNAQ-12) and Specific Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) were administered to three groups of participants with a different level of experience with snakes and snakebites: 1) snake experts, 2) firefighters, and 3) college students.ResultsThis study shows that individuals more experienced with snakes demonstrate lower fear. Moreover, participants who have suffered a snakebite (either venomous or not) score lower on fear of snakes (SNAQ-12), but not of all other potentially phobic stimuli (SPQ).ConclusionsOur results suggest that a harmless benign exposure might immunize people to highly biologically prepared fears of evolutionary threats, such as snakes.

Highlights

  • Fear acquisition of certain stimuli, such as snakes, is thought to be rapid, resistant to extinction, and transferable onto other similar objects

  • We explored fear of snakes among people used to deal with snakes daily and who have been repeatedly bitten by a snake compared with participants unfamiliar with snakes

  • Descriptive statistics showed that none of the experts (0%), two of the firemen (7.41%), and 15 students (22.39%) reached the cut-off criteria for snake phobia on the SNAQ-12

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Summary

Introduction

Fear acquisition of certain stimuli, such as snakes, is thought to be rapid, resistant to extinction, and transferable onto other similar objects. It has been hypothesized that due to increased survival chances, preparedness to instantly acquire fear towards evolutionary threats has been hardwired into neural pathways of the primate brain. We compare participants’ fear of snakes according to experience; from those who often deal with snakes and even suffer snakebites to those unfamiliar with snakes. Given the threat posed by snakes to humans, it is no wonder that these are one of the most feared animals and snake phobia ranks among anxiety disorders with the highest prevalence in the general population [4]. Several theoretical models have been proposed to explain this widespread, universal pattern of snake fear.

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