Arachnophobia
In psychological terms the name for the fear of spiders is arachnophobia. Most people has this fear of spiders that won't make them approach spiders or in any way touch spiders. It's not completely irrational since some spiders are dangerous to humans.
It is also a gender issue since nine of ten woman dislikes spiders while only 1/10 of the male population suffers from arachnophobia.
A natural part of human evolution
Fear of spiders has been a natural part of human evolution. In Africa people are most scared of large spiders while Indians from south America doesn't fear large spiders.
In fact they eat large spiders. These differences might suggest, that the fear of spiders may have a cultural background. Another possibility is some kind of inherited fear of spiders, but this is probably not very realistic according to experts in evolution and psychology.
Psychologists acknowledge three symptoms required to fill the definition of a phobia. First of all one should experience:
- fear
- sweating and or increased heart rate
- flight instinct or immobilisation
before it can be considered a phobia. It is interesting that so many people have these sensations whenever they encounter a spider.
The preferred prey of spiders are insects and spiders plays an important role in crop and garden ecology. People have an interest in spiders which is not acknowledged. Instead spiders are killed on the basis of unsound fear and prejudice.
Spiders are one of the most fascinating animals on the planet.
We hope you will consider to browse around these pages and learn more about the exciting world of spiders.
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