Do people have a NATURAL fear of snakes?

[WildRanger]

Most people are afraid of snakes. Is that fear natural? Are you personally afraid of snakes?
What would you say? Discuss.

[Elite]

I googled 'is fear of snakes natural'. This is the first hit: https://www.livescience.com/2348-fear-snakes.html

[IDontNotDoThings]

On top of the points presented in that article, I think it's perfectly natural to be afraid of something that you know has the ability to poison you in one bite, since it's basically impossible to get poison treated without medical help. On the other hand, if a bear or a lion attacks you, you aren't immediately fucked after a first attack (even without medical help, unless it gives you a massive open wound or something) if you can get away soon after.

I also think bears & lions have a lot more in common with humans than snakes do, so maybe part of the fear of snakes & spiders is that they're more foreign compared to other potential predators (in terms of physical traits, that is).

That said, I live in Australia, so maybe that influences my understanding of the fear of snakes. I don't know.

[Kotowboy]

I'm not scared of snakes ? But yeah we should avoid any animal that has venom. I've been stung by BAD jellyfish - and i've no desire to repeat that.

If I go swimming now I am constantly on the look out - as my favourite beach usually has loads of them. Now I just wait til a couple of hours after high tide when they've all gone out to sea.

I've held a corn snake in my hands and I enjoyed that.

The texture of its skin didn't feel at all like I expected. It was really smooth.

But yeah - i'm more worried about insects - since not only do some of them give you a nasty sting or bite - I find them so disgusting to look at.

Especially those beetle things whose entire back opens up to let their wings out. So gross.

But I still don't kill them. About the only thing I have no problem murdering is fleas as they're literally just a complete nuisance and flea bites can take a couple of days to stop itching. 

- I also don't hate spiders.

[wolfking]

I've come in contact with a couple of snakes in my times.  Red Belly and Brown, two of the deadliest.  They were gentle creatures that were more afraid of me then them.  They were looking to get away from me and I didn't feel threatened at all.  People that get bitten half the time provoke them instead of just leaving them be.

[Chino]

In college I remember coming across something about this in one of my lab courses. There was an experiment (I'm trying to find it and coming up empty), done with both children and adults, where the subjects would be rapidly shown dozens of card with random images on them. All the images had to do with nature and animal life. Their brains were monitored for certain fear signals, and without fail in both groups, their brains spiked whenever an image of a spider, snake, or a similarly shaped object appeared.

One could argue that an adult may have conditioned themselves to be afraid of snakes and the like, but the fact that children under the age of 5 were showing identical brain activity would suggest and an instinctual underlying rather than a learned behavior. That's not to say every person will fear the animals the same or can't overcome their fear of them. People in India overcome thing by conditioning their children early on to play with and not fear snakes. They sew the mouth of something like a cobra shut and then throw it in with the kid.

Edit: Just opened the link Elite posted, and I'm pretty sure I'm talking about the same thing.

[TheCountOfNYC]

I have a beautiful California Kingsnake as a pet so that would be a no from me.

[Adami]

How do you define natural?

And how would one measure that?

Does it mean with no reinforcement whatsoever? Cause I dunno. We're all reinforced pretty heavily from childhood to fear certain things, even though it's usually unintentional.

Or do you mean there is a evolutionary aspect to it?

[gmillerdrake]

I have a beautiful California Kingsnake as a pet so that would be a no from me.

Yep. I’ve had just about every type of indigenous or ‘marketed’ snake out there as a pet at one time or another. I was always drawn to them and was catching and handling them at a young age. Any reptile or amphibian for that matter.

[TheCountOfNYC]

I have a beautiful California Kingsnake as a pet so that would be a no from me.

Yep. I’ve had just about every type of indigenous or ‘marketed’ snake out there as a pet at one time or another. I was always drawn to them and was catching and handling them at a young age. Any reptile or amphibian for that matter.

I also have two tarantulas and love heights, yet I'm terrified of cicadas and needles in addition to being claustrophobic, so the real answer to this thread is that phobias are weird and unpredictable.

[lonestar]

Love snks. My brother and I had a few as pets when we were kids. Also my 5th grade teacher has some in the classroom including a 15ft reticulated python named Hercules.