Thread 5026863

What makes spiders so scary for humans? The vast majority of their species can't even pierce human skin, and almost all are absolutely terrified of humans and will run as soon as they feel threatened.

Fyi i didn't put a spider in the OP cause i'm scared of them as well, i have crippling arachnophobia

>>5026863 (OP)
>>5026864
Arachnophobia is learned behavior. There isn't an evolutionary basis for it past monkey see monkey do. The root cause is urbanization and modern obsession with "cleanliness." And I hate saying those words because it makes me sound like a poltard but there's no other way to put it. Basically:
>mother who's only regular interaction with nature is seeing birds at a feeder finds a spider in the house
>freaks out because it's icky yucky poo poo
>baby picks up on the reaction and internalizes it
>phobia is reinforced by media and pseudoscience about muh starburst shape which normalizes it
>no social impetus to overcome the phobia because except in extreme cases it doesn't negatively impact most peoples' day to day lives
That's really all there is to it. Arachnophobia is easily overcome through exposure therapy.

>>5026905
You think you're smart but you aren't

>>5026912
Uh, ok? Which 5th grade level words did you struggle with?

I'm not scared of spiders. Centipedes can fuck off back to Tartarus from whence they came, though. Horrifying fucking things.

>>5026863 (OP)
Probably because when we lived in Africa the humans who stayed the fuck away from spiders tended to not get bitten and die vs. the ones who weren’t scared of them.

>>5027111
There are no one bite and you die spiders in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, or the Americas. There are plenty of caterpillars that can take you out however, so why don't they send people into screaming fits? What about all the plants like giant hogwort that can cause suicide inducing permanent pain if you so much as brush by them?

>>5027112
What about 1 million+ years ago? The evolutionary fear is still baked in

>>5027117
still no, you had more immediate problems than a tiny spider, like cats

>>5027117
>t.man of leng

>>5026905
This. It is the same type of fear that people have of cockroaches. There is no evolutionary basis for fearing spiders specifically
>>5027112
also this
>>5027117
1 million years ago your ancestors would’ve eaten a spider

>>5027112
Getting sick for most of human history was a death sentence, anon

>>5027143
Very few spiders can do even that much. What about the other things I mentioned?

>>5026863 (OP)
When I find spiders in my apartment I've just been leaving them there because I like observing them. I saw a centipede the other night though and I killed his ass because he was fucking gross and I didn't want him hunting my spiders.

>>5027112
>suicide inducing permanent pain
I think you're thinking of Gympie Gympie, not giant hogweed.

>>5026931
damn that anon was right, you are a fucking idiot

>>5026863 (OP)
Because women. Also generally protection against hyper venomous species of animals

>>5027148
Generally Centipedes freak me out more because unlike spiders they are constantly on the move and are frantic, I one day had one end up in my sandals when I took them off for a brief moment, and I wore them back a centipede was crawling in between my toes and I flipped out and kicked off my sandal and the pede.

>>5027143
There’s a difference between getting sick from an infection vs from a mildly venomous bite or sting. An initially non-lethal infection can easily proliferate out of control and overwhelm your immune system, make you vulnerable to new infections, etc. The effects of a weak venom are temporary and will blow over in a short period

mass psychosis

>>5026905
You don't sound like a /pol/tard; don't know why you would. I think you're correct. My parents were afraid of hamsters when I was a kid. I think it's because they're both from cities and associated rats with disease and unclean urban places. A lot of fear is environmental and cultural.

>>5027112
I'm actually considerably more afraid of caterpillars than spiders, particularly fat or furry caterpillars.