<p>The answer can be found from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology" rel="nofollow">evolutionary psychology</a>. We are wired to feel fear when we encounter stimulus that look like spiders and snakes.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is the<br>
  output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent<br>
  problems in human ancestral environments</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Spiders and snakes were major threads in the early years of the evolutionary history of humans. Human ancestors that were more afraid of spiders/snakes had an evolutionary advantage over those who did not, because they were more cautious and survived more years.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>people nonetheless learn to fear spiders and snakes about as easily as
  they do a pointed gun, and more easily than an unpointed gun, rabbits
  or flowers. A potential explanation is that spiders and snakes
  were a threat to human ancestors throughout the Pleistocene, whereas
  guns (and rabbits and flowers) were not. There is thus a mismatch
  between humans' evolved fear-learning psychology and the modern
  environment.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-09T20:39:00.283Z
Interesting. From where did you get the information ?
Galabyca
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-10T18:15:25.690Z
The extracts are from wikipedia. You can find references at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology
DesignerAnalyst
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-09T17:30:33.893Z
2016-03-11T15:14:19.200Z
2016-03-11T15:14:19.200Z
DesignerAnalyst
<p>Humans are most comfortable with those things that resemble themselves, both in terms of physical features and mentality. A dog, for example, may have an extra set of legs and a tail, but does not differ all that significantly from humans or other mammals&mdash;we can similarly see ourselves in the behavior and apparent emotions they exhibit.</p>

<p>Arachnids, on the other hand, are several orders of magnitude more alien. Beyond the gross physical dissimilarities, it is impossible to attribute anything resembling human emotion or motivation to them. Add to that their penchant for appearing unexpected in dark places and their inherently predatory nature, the very <em>idea</em> of spiders triggers in many people a primordial dread.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-06T09:53:33.957Z
This argument is not very specific. It would equally apply to many animals that people are not afraid of or just find disgusting. For instance, woodlice are physiologically very different and are found in dark place, but are not commonly associated with phobias.
Joe Bathelt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-04T22:22:53.340Z
2016-03-05T21:09:22.757Z
2016-03-05T21:09:22.757Z
Sean
<p>A quick lit scan suggests evolutionary advantage to being afraid of spiders and snakes. Unclear what causes this mechanism: <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1004_snakefears.html" rel="nofollow">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1004_snakefears.html</a></p>

<p>Social conditioning also likely plays a huge role here. Spiders in our society are seen as evil / scary (via Halloween, movies, etc.). This unconscious bias makes people naturally afraid of bugs and spiders through social conditioning and social physics.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-09T18:04:31.253Z
The evidence for the evolutionary account is pretty mixed and hard to interpret.  [See my answer to a related question for more info](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/10934/is-a-fear-response-to-the-sight-of-predators-innate-or-acquired).
mrt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-09T06:40:52.797Z
2016-03-09T06:40:52.797Z
borker
<p>According to the American Psychiatric Association, phobias affect more than one in ten people in the US, and of those individuals, up to 40% of phobias are related to bugs (including spiders), mice, snake and bats.</p>

<p>There are clearly a lot of arachnophobes. But do they know why they fear spiders? Can they do something to control those fears?</p>

<p>Once bitten twice shy?</p>

<p>Psychologists believe that one reason why people fear spiders is because of some direct experience with the arachnids instilled that fear in them. This is known as the “conditioning” view of arachnophobia.</p>

<p>There was also an effect from family. Those people fearful of spiders reported having a family member with similar fears, but the study was unable to separate genetic factors from environmental ones. </p>

<p>Not surprisingly, if you give kids a list of things that might be scary for them, the vast majority check off things like not breathing, getting hit by a car, bombs, fire or burglars as quite important. Interestingly, if you give them a free option to tell researchers what sorts of things they fear the most, both boys and girls report “spiders” as their top fear (the second fear is being kidnapped, third is predators and fourth is the dark).</p>

<p>This is surprising. Of all the things kids might report, they list spiders as the number one fear. So in contrast to Davey’s work, Muris finds that the kids that were most fearful of spiders could relate that fear to specific events. Perhaps conditioning is the pathway to arachnophobia.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-10T19:09:01.153Z
This is a direct quote from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-are-we-so-afraid-of-spiders-10263450.html without any attribution.
Josh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-10T11:32:00.837Z
2016-03-10T11:32:00.837Z
charan choudhary
<p>Why are so many people <em>arachnophobes</em> (have an extreme fear of spiders)? </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-04T23:24:42.807Z
Related: http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/9200/why-do-people-fear-statistically-unlikely-things
Arnon Weinberg
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-05T06:33:33.817Z
Somewhat related read [here](http://www.dsm5.org/research/documents/lebeau_sp.pdf) and [here](http://www.kli.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/klipsy/public/margraf%20Journals%20with%20Peer-Review/Becker%20et%20al.%20%282007%29.%20Epidemiology%20of%20specific%20phobia%20subtypes_Findings%20from%20the%20dresden%20mental%20health%20study.pdf). Those studies found that among other sub-types of specific phobia, animals types are one of the most common. And the focus of fear of this type is "disgust" or "revulsion".
Nono
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-05T06:36:34.720Z
And another study [here](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096510000652) found that even among other disgusting animal (cockroaches), children and adults detected spiders more rapidly. Perhaps because spiders are not just disgusting, but also dangerous (venomous), but I have yet to find research claiming this.
Nono
<cognitive-psychology><phobia>
Why are so many people arachnophobes (afraid of spiders)?
Galabyca
# Why are so many people arachnophobes (afraid of spiders)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-18)

Why are so many people *arachnophobes* (have an extreme fear of spiders)?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, phobia

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Related: http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/9200/why-do-people-fear-statistically-unlikely-things  
> **username_2**: Somewhat related read [here](http://www.dsm5.org/research/documents/lebeau_sp.pdf) and [here](http://www.kli.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/klipsy/public/margraf%20Journals%20with%20Peer-Review/Becker%20et%20al.%20%282007%29.%20Epidemiology%20of%20specific%20phobia%20subtypes_Findings%20from%20the%20dresden%20mental%20health%20study.pdf). Those studies found that among other sub-types of specific phobia, animals types are one of the most common. And the focus of fear of this type is "disgust" or "revulsion".  
> **username_2**: And another study [here](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096510000652) found that even among other disgusting animal (cockroaches), children and adults detected spiders more rapidly. Perhaps because spiders are not just disgusting, but also dangerous (venomous), but I have yet to find research claiming this.  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-03-09. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

The answer can be found from [evolutionary psychology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology). We are wired to feel fear when we encounter stimulus that look like spiders and snakes.

> Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is the  
> output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent  
> problems in human ancestral environments

Spiders and snakes were major threads in the early years of the evolutionary history of humans. Human ancestors that were more afraid of spiders/snakes had an evolutionary advantage over those who did not, because they were more cautious and survived more years.

> people nonetheless learn to fear spiders and snakes about as easily as
> they do a pointed gun, and more easily than an unpointed gun, rabbits
> or flowers. A potential explanation is that spiders and snakes
> were a threat to human ancestors throughout the Pleistocene, whereas
> guns (and rabbits and flowers) were not. There is thus a mismatch
> between humans' evolved fear-learning psychology and the modern
> environment.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Interesting. From where did you get the information ?  
> **username_3**: The extracts are from wikipedia. You can find references at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2016-03-04. Score: 2

Humans are most comfortable with those things that resemble themselves, both in terms of physical features and mentality. A dog, for example, may have an extra set of legs and a tail, but does not differ all that significantly from humans or other mammals—we can similarly see ourselves in the behavior and apparent emotions they exhibit.

Arachnids, on the other hand, are several orders of magnitude more alien. Beyond the gross physical dissimilarities, it is impossible to attribute anything resembling human emotion or motivation to them. Add to that their penchant for appearing unexpected in dark places and their inherently predatory nature, the very *idea* of spiders triggers in many people a primordial dread.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: This argument is not very specific. It would equally apply to many animals that people are not afraid of or just find disgusting. For instance, woodlice are physiologically very different and are found in dark place, but are not commonly associated with phobias.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2016-03-09. Score: 2

A quick lit scan suggests evolutionary advantage to being afraid of spiders and snakes. Unclear what causes this mechanism: <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/10/1004_snakefears.html>

Social conditioning also likely plays a huge role here. Spiders in our society are seen as evil / scary (via Halloween, movies, etc.). This unconscious bias makes people naturally afraid of bugs and spiders through social conditioning and social physics.

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: The evidence for the evolutionary account is pretty mixed and hard to interpret.  [See my answer to a related question for more info](http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/10934/is-a-fear-response-to-the-sight-of-predators-innate-or-acquired).  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2016-03-10. Score: 0

According to the American Psychiatric Association, phobias affect more than one in ten people in the US, and of those individuals, up to 40% of phobias are related to bugs (including spiders), mice, snake and bats.

There are clearly a lot of arachnophobes. But do they know why they fear spiders? Can they do something to control those fears?

Once bitten twice shy?

Psychologists believe that one reason why people fear spiders is because of some direct experience with the arachnids instilled that fear in them. This is known as the “conditioning” view of arachnophobia.

There was also an effect from family. Those people fearful of spiders reported having a family member with similar fears, but the study was unable to separate genetic factors from environmental ones.

Not surprisingly, if you give kids a list of things that might be scary for them, the vast majority check off things like not breathing, getting hit by a car, bombs, fire or burglars as quite important. Interestingly, if you give them a free option to tell researchers what sorts of things they fear the most, both boys and girls report “spiders” as their top fear (the second fear is being kidnapped, third is predators and fourth is the dark).

This is surprising. Of all the things kids might report, they list spiders as the number one fear. So in contrast to Davey’s work, Muris finds that the kids that were most fearful of spiders could relate that fear to specific events. Perhaps conditioning is the pathway to arachnophobia.

> **Comments:**
> **username_9**: This is a direct quote from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/why-are-we-so-afraid-of-spiders-10263450.html without any attribution.  

---

