Where did we go wrong?

[CoolioTiffany]

Spiders are actually not that bad. I held this curly hair tarantula at last year's show and it was actually pretty cool to handle. After that experience I wouldn't mind keeping one. My sister said she'd hold it if I did, and even though I was uneasy about big spiders and have never handled a spider before I was curious about handling it so I did. They are really awesome to handle so maybe some day I'd get one. I can't tell my aunt though LOL

I guess nothing in me went wrong, I love snakes and spiders

[rockhardchick666]

I'm cool with anything that has less than four legs...

I'll even go four or less!

[mainbutter]

"Where did we go wrong?"

I'll tell you.

Nature vs. Nurture.

Debate it all you want, but everything determined by our genetics. It is shown over and over again, you can even predict who will be more likely to be in a car crash based on genetics. Score one for nature.

However, similar studies have shown that you can also predict just about everything that might happen to a person based on their environment that they live in. Score one for nurture.

We went wrong on the "nurture" front. Something happened in your life. Maybe it was a trip to the zoo, maybe it was the croc hunter, maybe it was growing up in the southeast and playing in swamps. Just because you don't remember how you first started liking reptiles doesn't mean there wasn't an environmental cause (or a few)

[Big Gunns]

"Where did we go wrong?"

I'll tell you.

Nature vs. Nurture.

Debate it all you want, but everything determined by our genetics. It is shown over and over again, you can even predict who will be more likely to be in a car crash based on genetics. Score one for nature.

However, similar studies have shown that you can also predict just about everything that might happen to a person based on their environment that they live in. Score one for nurture.

We went wrong on the "nurture" front. Something happened in your life. Maybe it was a trip to the zoo, maybe it was the croc hunter, maybe it was growing up in the southeast and playing in swamps. Just because you don't remember how you first started liking reptiles doesn't mean there wasn't an environmental cause (or a few)

BG doesn't believe it. He has two brothers that don't feel the same way about snakes as him. They don't like sports like him, they're completely different than him. So BG does not believe your theory mainbuts.

Then again...there can only be one Big Gunns.


BG will let yah all in on a leeetle secret. He hates Spiders!!!!!!!

Big Gunns tells all his fans. He can sleep like a baby if 100 snakes are loose in the house, but one Tarantula. Big Gunns is sleeping at a fans house.

[Patricia]

A kid will go right up to a snake and pick it up until the momma goes. EWWWWWWWW....stay away. Test your kid. BG bets they'll go right up to a snake and pick it up.

That's a good point. The younger the kid, the less likely he/she will be afraid of snakes. It was love at first sight the first time I held a snake at around age 7. My 9yo's classmate was here a couple of weeks ago, scared at first, but then she touched our BP and then didn't even understand why she was scared at all.

But yes, there's an irrational fear amongst most people about snakes. I truly don't understand it.

[Russ Lawson]

It's not a clear cut study - obviously - but I guess t's something that they've concluded.

Here's the link:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...nakefears.html This is an older study, from back in 2001, but I guess there's been "break throughs" recently, as I heard a little blurb about it during the hourly news on the local radio station, and decided to look up what was going on.

If you search for it, there's other recent articles by other sources. It's interesting, and it may have some ground, but I still think it's something that's influenced by more than just instinct and such. Until they actually cut into a human brain and figure out what the heck is really going on, I'm not going to decide on it one way or another.

Here's one from msnbc:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35459615/

Obviously, humans aren't crickets, but stuff like this is always fun to read about, whether you agree with the scientists or not.

The fact that the test subjects were mostly psychology students tells me that most would have already been trained to be afraid of these animals for many years. Of course they would respond quicker to something "scary" than something "peaceful." It sounds a lot to me like the psychologist running it just drew the conclusions he wanted to. The only way I could see to get definitive results on this sort of experiment would be to monitor the brainwaves of infants while showing them the pictures.

[barres]

I am new to the whole snake thing. I've never feared them, per se, unless I could identify them as venomous. I recently went to Space Center Houston, and they had brought in Clint "The Snake Guy" and a few of his friends. I got picked out of the audience to hold one of his snakes to allow any/every one in the audience a chance to come pet and hold it. The snake handed to me was a Ball Python named Lucky.

After 45 minutes of handling Lucky and letting everyone else do so, as well, I knew I was the lucky one. Which is why I am here learning as much as I can about BPs.

All that to say that my 2 sons were there with me. One is 4 the other is 9. The 9 year old was nervous around the snakes. My 4 year old was loving every minute of it. We even got a picture of him and my wife holding a 7 foot Boa (sorry, I forget the exact species). My boy and the snake are looking right at each other as if they're saying, "Hi! Pleased to meet you." Even though Mom and Dad obviously had no problems with any of the snakes, the older boy was nervous about them and the younger one wasn't.

[771subliminal]

i guess we can thank the movies anaconda and arachnaphobia for that.... lol

it probably does have a lot to do with the media and movies. after I saw jaws as a young kid, I am now terrified of going in the water.... even fresh water scares me.

the media has always been messing with peoples minds look at all those monster movies from the 50's

[MissLeMew]

the media has always been messing with peoples minds look at all those monster movies from the 50's

The only thing this needs is a few clowns, and a serial killer. OR a serial killing clown.