# People aren't born afraid of spiders and snakes: Fear is quickly learned during infan



## News Bot (Jan 25, 2011)

There's a reason why Hollywood makes movies like Arachnophobia and Snakes on a Plane: Most people are afraid of spiders and snakes. A new article reviews research with infants and toddlers and finds that we aren't born afraid of spiders and snakes, but we can learn these fears very quickly.

*Published On:* 24-Jan-11 03:00 PM
*Source:* ScienceDaily

*Go to Original Article*


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## longqi (Jan 25, 2011)

I have been demonstrating snakes for 18 odd years
Just the scent of a snake MAY send a new born baby into hysterics
I took some skin etc to NZ to try this years ago

No snakes there but very adverse reactions from over 50% of babies and very young children

Im not sure how they did their tests and my tests were simply done out of curiousity with no clinical back-up but we have very different answers

I do totally agree that parental influence takes over from natural instinct very quickly
but I also feel that natural instinct plays a major role as well

Another example is bringing a cat into a house full of snakes
It will very quickly get used to them
But bring a large snake into a house full of cats and watch the reactions
..


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