Heights | Dogs | Insects and spiders | Snakes | Flying | Lifts | Crowds | The dark | Ghosts and supernatural phenomena | Speaking in public | Storms | Terrorism
Feeling edgy
A : Well, although I think the jury’s still out on this one, the answer is probably both. I read once that two of the most obvious fears we’re born with are the fear of falling and the aversion to loud noises. I think the fear of water is also mentioned quite often too. Of course, it makes sense to be afraid of all of these things. I mean, if our ancestors hadn't experienced these fears, we probably wouldn't be here now to talk about them. You know, the human race would have died out drowning in rivers after falling off cliffs, or being surprised by hungry predators whose growling they didn’t give much importance to. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. We aren't scared of heights because we once fell off a cliff and discovered it wasn’t a very pleasant experience, but because we had this fear of heights to begin with. So yeah, these fears are probably hardwired into our brains. You know, they’ve been passed down generation after generation over tens of thousands of years. They’re, sort of, embedded into our genes. Having said all that, it’s also true there’s been a lot of research which shows that we acquire many fears through our lived experience, which is pretty logical really. If you were bitten by dog when you were a kid, you're likely to be a bit more fearful of dogs than people who weren't. But I don't think all acquired fears are the result of traumatic first-hand experiences. In fact, most of them are probably due to social conditioning, our upbringing and environment. A lot of people think the fear of spiders is programmed into our genes, but it may be just because everyone around us seems to be wary of spiders, so we've developed the same feeling of fear towards them. I don’t know. As I said before, I think the jury’s still out on where exactly our fears come from.
B : Yes, I think they probably do, more or less. I mean, those basic fears that we’re born with, you know, the fear of loud noises or the fear of snakes, for example, I think those are probably common to most species, to mammals, at least. Having said that, I’m sure there are quite a lot of fears which are more specific to some creatures and not others. Maybe it’s a silly example, but cats don’t seem to have the same fear of heights as most humans have. We’ve probably all seen cats stuck up trees. If you look carefully at them, they don’t look particularly scared. You know, they’re just stuck, they can’t get down. And there may be more differences when it comes to fears that are acquired or learnt. You know, most of us would feel a bit wary about being in the presence of someone with a gun, and would be scared to death if they pointed it at you. You know, because we have the cultural knowledge to know what’ll happen if they pull the trigger. A rabbit, on the other hand, is likely to be more afraid of the person carrying the gun than the gun itself. No matter how often it’s seen a gun. So, humans seem to be better at learning what’s dangerous. You know, they’re better at assessing threat. Another example are those hysterical videos of cats jumping out of their skins when they catch sight of a cucumber. Of course, you might get a bit of a fright if you mistake a cucumber for a snake too. But you know, unlike a cat you’d realise pretty quickly that it was just a harmless vegetable. As for the different reactions that fear produces, I’m less sure. But they’re probably quite similar across species. I think there are two main ones; “fight or flight”, which basically means you defend yourself, or you run, or fly, away. I suppose that’s when every living creature’s survival instincts kick in. And that’s probably more or less the same whether you’re about to be mugged on your way home from the pub, or if you’re being chased by a lion after having a drink at the local water hole.
