Reasons Why People Get Phobia Of Animals

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Everyone's fear can come with different causes. Some are afraid of heights, some are not, some are afraid to ride a jetcoaster, some are not, some are afraid of the dark on the contrary, some are ordinary.

But there is one thing almost everyone agrees on about fear: it's a phobia of animals. Whether it's a snake, spider, mouse or cockroach. This kind of fear is called arachnophobia.

The question is, why the fear of some animals can be the same as many people? Then what animal is the most phobic?

According to Martin Seligman's theory written by Aimee S. Dunlap entitled Biological Preparedness (2017) fear arises because animals and / or humans have a good ability to survive. This is why even a baby can be afraid of spiders and snakes even though he doesn't know anything about them.

However, phobia to animals arises not only because of fear, but also because of disgust. Cockroaches, for example, we know they will not attack humans, but many people are made to shudder because of it. If fear of animals is a reaction that protects people from physical injury, while disgust is there to protect people from disease.

Unfortunately, the two studies still don't specifically explain whether feelings of fear and disgust are two different variables of phobia, or the interrelated feelings that can be triggered in the same person by the same animal. To answer this, there is a study published by the British Journal of Psychology that explores animal phobia.

Initially, the research began to note which animals people feared the most. From there, as many as 24 animals were recorded including ants, bats, bulls, cockroaches, cats, dogs, fish, frogs, lizards, fleas, grubs, mice, worms, spider snakes, snakes, and others.

Next, they showed the pictures of the 24 recorded animals to more than 2,000 respondents online and asked them to rate how scared and disgusted they were when they saw each of them. These questions are summarized in a questionnaire.

As a result, snakes and slimy invertbrata (invertebrates) are the animals that trigger the most fear. Besides the snake that got the highest score as the most frightening animal, the spider. Meanwhile, the animals with the highest disgust score included spiders, tapeworms, roundworms, fleas, and grubs.

Spiders are the most feared and the most disgusting animals. Despite the fact that spiders have relatively small bodies, according to the researchers, one thing that makes the animal both fearful and disgusting is because of its many-legged body. In addition, because spiders are also animals that we can never guess where they are.