If you’re terrified of spiders, or fearful of snakes, then blame your parents.
A study challenges the widely held view that we are hard-wired to fear creepy crawlies, and instead suggests we learn to be scared of them in the first years of life.
Fear of snakes is one of the most common - and, in Britain, irrational - phobias. Half the population are thought to suffer even though most have never actually seen a snake.
Experts at Rutgers University in Newark showed seven-month-old babies two videos side by side - one of a snake and another of a non-threatening animal. At the same time, the babies were played a recording of either a fearful human voice or a happy one. The infants spent more time looking at the snake videos when listening to the fearful voices, but showed no signs of fear themselves, the researchers report in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Past studies have shown that people can be taught to fear almost anything. In one Swedish study, scientists showed volunteers images of snakes, spiders, flowers and mushrooms while giving them a small electric shock. Unsurprisingly, the volunteers learnt to associate all the images with fear. - Daily Mail