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General Reptile Discussion
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<blockquote data-quote="Sdaji" data-source="post: 2542883" data-attributes="member: 688"><p>Actually, humans do have genetic programming for an instinctive fear of snakes. Snake enthusiasts love to deny this, but in reality, the natural state of a human is to fear snakes. Throughout our prehistory, history and even today in most parts of the world, snakes kill more humans than any other type of animal (mosquitoes being the only exception if you count them as killing people rather than malaria etc). Our primate ancestors also were often killed by snakes, as are our living primate relatives today, as well as plenty of more distantly-related animals. You can raise a monkey without it ever seeing a snake, and if you then show it a snake as an adult it will be scared of the snake. Same deal with birds etc, and, of course, humans. The media wants ratings and will play on the human fear of snakes, but it does not cause that fear, it just capitalises on it.</p><p></p><p>Considering the fact that snakes were such a huge killer of humans throughout millions of years of our evolution, it would not make sense for humans not to have developed an instinctive fear of them. It's quite bizarre that snake enthusiasts manage to twist themselves into believing that such a thing doesn't exist. Not to mention of course the deep instinctive fear so many people show when exposed to snakes - those terrified reactions which instinctively leap out of people are so clearly in the DNA rather than learned. Part of the appeal of snakes to many people is the feeling they get when handling something which they cognitively know is not dangerous but fires off their instincts. They obviously don't usually describe it in those words or understand that's what's happening, but if you watch the reactions of people handling snakes for the first time and you understand animal behaviour (humans are just another animal), it's completely obvious what's going on, and their descriptions of the experience usually fits with it perfectly. Snake enthusiasts ourselves often don't have the same instinctive fear that typical humans do, or they overcome it while young and forget they had it, so they believe others don't have it, but it's that's about as silly as someone born blind believing that it's not normal for people to be able to see - the normal human state doesn't change because of the exceptions, and it's much easier for humans to cognitively 'unlearn' an instinctive fear than it is for animals because we have the highest faculty for doing so.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sdaji, post: 2542883, member: 688"] Actually, humans do have genetic programming for an instinctive fear of snakes. Snake enthusiasts love to deny this, but in reality, the natural state of a human is to fear snakes. Throughout our prehistory, history and even today in most parts of the world, snakes kill more humans than any other type of animal (mosquitoes being the only exception if you count them as killing people rather than malaria etc). Our primate ancestors also were often killed by snakes, as are our living primate relatives today, as well as plenty of more distantly-related animals. You can raise a monkey without it ever seeing a snake, and if you then show it a snake as an adult it will be scared of the snake. Same deal with birds etc, and, of course, humans. The media wants ratings and will play on the human fear of snakes, but it does not cause that fear, it just capitalises on it. Considering the fact that snakes were such a huge killer of humans throughout millions of years of our evolution, it would not make sense for humans not to have developed an instinctive fear of them. It's quite bizarre that snake enthusiasts manage to twist themselves into believing that such a thing doesn't exist. Not to mention of course the deep instinctive fear so many people show when exposed to snakes - those terrified reactions which instinctively leap out of people are so clearly in the DNA rather than learned. Part of the appeal of snakes to many people is the feeling they get when handling something which they cognitively know is not dangerous but fires off their instincts. They obviously don't usually describe it in those words or understand that's what's happening, but if you watch the reactions of people handling snakes for the first time and you understand animal behaviour (humans are just another animal), it's completely obvious what's going on, and their descriptions of the experience usually fits with it perfectly. Snake enthusiasts ourselves often don't have the same instinctive fear that typical humans do, or they overcome it while young and forget they had it, so they believe others don't have it, but it's that's about as silly as someone born blind believing that it's not normal for people to be able to see - the normal human state doesn't change because of the exceptions, and it's much easier for humans to cognitively 'unlearn' an instinctive fear than it is for animals because we have the highest faculty for doing so. [/QUOTE]
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