Why I think people are so afraid of snakes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tfpets

decided he is deathly afraid of them at 13 months old.

---

Again that would prove, it's not instinctual but a learned behavior.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dracoluna

Baby girls will actually react with fear to snakes around 11 months old with no prior conditioning. Baby boys start having the same reaction around 13-14 months old.

---

O ok I see why your saying that. ;) But I still don't agree. How would that study know that the child positively had never taken anything in negative towards snakes? Around that age kids personalities start shining through. Some kids are deathly afraid of cats, it doesn't mean they are wired that way. My son loves snakes. My daughter who is 14 months could really care less about them. Everyone is afraid or not afraid of things because of life experiences, not because we are programmed one way or the other.

This is crazy, put a snake next to a 3 month old and watch the kid try to put it in her mouth. By the time a kid is a year old they have probably been exposed to hundreds of snake related scenarios through various media. The walk in on the wrong part of a scary movie, or are just not familier with the animal in general, and they might be scared for a bit. Unless the fear is truely phobic, it can be overcome in a matter of minutes and a beer or two (ok we are talking about kids, a Zima or two). Also, why would we have an instinctual fear of snakes? We are not on their list food items. An instinctual fear of lions would make more sense, but no, they are cute and cuddly. Bears maybe, nope they most kids first best friend. Hey, thinking about it, the Care Bear Cousins didn't have a reptile representative. Ummmmmmmm

I would assume an instinct would be immediate upon sight developing say 3 weeks or so. Like touching something hot we instinctually pull away before there is time for thought. I would infer that at a later date instinct does not kick in but conditioning and learned response does. Snakes are sadly portrayed as the villain in popular media. I can only think of one movie in the last handful of years where a snake was a good character, The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Mrs. Plithiver.

Gale,
This is very very true! Our little one eyed girl is the snake I will use to introduce fearful people too. She is disarming that way. Add that she is super calm and very very chill doesn't hurt. Our vet loves her, it is funny, when she goes for a check up the whole office turns up to visit her. I don't know if it is because she has one eye or that she was tube fed for the first 4 months of her life (micro small twin her sibling was normal and she was smaller than a baby corn.) But in either case she is super calm no matter what you do to her. It is hard to be afraid of her she is 0% threatening.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by angllady2

You know adding to this theme a little. I adopted a lovely normal female who was born without eyes.

She is my spokesnake. People are drawn to animals with deformities or disabilities. Dog with three legs, cat with one eye, you all know what I mean.

Well, Athena has proven irresistible to people because she has no eyes. Even people who will get as far away as they can from a baby ball python or cornsnake, cannot help but be drawn to her. As soon as they hear she was born eyeless, they have to get close enough to see for themselves. And once they can see it, the questions start. How does she eat ? Can she see in heat with no eyes ? Does it hurt her that she can't see ? And on and on.

I tell them she eats just fine. Yes she can see in heat, in fact she can see you just fine. No, it doesn't hurt her or affect her in any way that she cannot see. Because she was born this way, she has no idea she's not just the same as any other ball python. Fascination draws them in, and before they know it, most want to hold her. Or at least pet her. They begin to talk to her, and tell each other how cool it is when she "looks" at them.

As she grows, she becomes even more interesting to people, because obviously she has a good life or she could not be so big and healthy. And people just can't comprehend she can have a normal life with no eyes. She has done more to educate people on "dangerous" ball pythons in the few months I've had her than years of me trying to tell people about them.

Gale

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rob

How would that study know that the child positively had never taken anything in negative towards snakes?

---

And, I still haven't seen a link to this study. We are now starting to debate the results of a study with out any proof that it exists :rofl:

:popcorn:

Nothing definitive, but a good read:
http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatre...ve-or-learned/

Hmm, I'm just taking a shot in the dark here...but is it maybe possible that fear can sometimes be a genetic trait? Passed down from parent to child, thus, the child instinctively being afraid of snakes if one of the parents are, without any other further knowledge of snakes?

Fear is not genetic, Its learned.
If fear was genetic we wouldn't have to teach our children not to touch the stove or not to stick their hands in a fan, or to not do anything else that would otherwise hurt them, cause it would already have been hard wired in their brain to not do these things over the hundreds of generations that have passed....

Obviously that's not the case, children are born not fearing anything and parents have to teach them things to avoid in order to 'potentially' avoid harm.

Its after a child experiences something negative or painful about a matter that they start to fear it, as to not have to experience it again,but it could also immediately tie in with a parents reaction as well, sometimes the baby fears it only after the parent saw it and reacted a certain way, thus making them fear it too even though it never directly caused them any harm.But again that's a reaction that they learned.