Conscious Choice: Eeeek!

August 2000

Eeeek!

Irrational animal fears can be banished with a powerful antidote...education

by Ana Arias Terry

It’s a lazy Sunday morning. You stretch as you make your way into the kitchen for that first dose of java. As you’re about to pour the caffeine substance in your mug, you hold your breath at the sight before you. A tiny field mouse scurries across the counter.

Time for a quick shower. As you pull the curtain aside to turn on the faucet, a hairy spider the size of a quarter rests on the hot water knob. Your heart races and you gasp, a little shocked.

It’s your day off, and you decide to take a short hike to start out the morning just right. You smile and congratulate yourself for making the effort to get up so early. With vigor you take a few steps. Out of the corner of your eye, you catch some movement on the grassy area near the stream, not a foot away from where you stand. With adrenaline surging forth, you see it. Meandering with stealthy purpose is a snake whose length you haven’t yet fully comprehended.

Musophobia, arachnophobia, and ophidiophobia may not be common terms that come up in your conversations with family and friends, but fears of mice, spiders, and snakes are not uncommon. Fear of specific animals and insects ranks among the most common phobias today. Estimates indicate that between 10 and 18 percent of Americans have a particular type of specific phobia at some point. According to Dr. Ron Pies, clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University, females account for approximately 80 percent of the people with animal and environmental phobias.

Most folks with phobias know that they are being excessive in their thoughts, but it doesn’t make the situation less "real" or threatening. Still, most simple phobias don’t cause intense disruptions in the lives of individuals so many folks don’t get professional assistance. They simply try to avoid the source of their distress or deal with it when they encounter it. Fortunately for those who do seek help, therapists and researchers have been able to develop treatment programs that are making significant roadways into helping most people with phobias. For individuals who don’t require specialized treatment but still find themselves getting goose bumps at the sight of a bat, bug, or any type of animal, a good antidote in dispelling irrational fear of animals is education.

Behind the Fear

A number of theories exist about the development of phobias and milder fears. Some claim that no one quite knows with certainty how they came to be. Others say that these fears can develop after traumatic events take place. The stumper, of course, is why some develop phobias after a traumatic incident while others don’t. Still others claim that phobias can develop slowly over time — whether learned in childhood on one’s own or picked up from fears passed on from parents or friends. Yet others see the culprit as a combination of social and environmental factors mixed with a genetic predisposition.

Edward O. Wilson, one of the most highly respected and well-known biologists worldwide, says in his book Consilience that fear of snakes, for example, is primordial and runs deep in primates of the Old World. "Human beings also possess an innate aversion to snakes, and, as in the chimpanzee, it grows stronger during adolescence. The reaction is not a hardwired instinct. It is a bias in development of the kind psychologists call prepared learning. Children simply learn fear of snakes more easily than they remain indifferent or learn affection for snakes. Before the age of five, they feel no special anxiety. Later they grow increasingly wary. Then just one or two bad experiences — a snake writhing nearby through the grass or a frightening story — can make them deeply and permanently afraid. The propensity is deep-set. Other common fears...start to wane after seven years of age. In contrast, the tendency to avoid snakes grows stronger with time."

While the "special sensitivity" that individuals feel for snakes can develop into a phobia, says Wilson, it’s possible to go the other way and learn how to deal with snakes without the fear component and even learn to like the animal. "The neural pathways of snake aversion have not been explored. We do not know the proximate cause of the phenomenon except to classify it as prepared learning," adds Wilson. Contrasting this scenario is what Wilson calls the "probable ultimate cause, the survival value of the aversion" as one that is well known. In the course of our history as a species, a few types of snakes have caused a great deal of illness and death.

The cultural component to snakes and their symbolism is something else that Wilson addresses and which can help us understand the numerous components that can influence our irrational fears about an animal.

"Snakes and dream serpents provide an example of how agents of nature can be translated into the symbols of culture," says Wilson. "For hundreds of thousands of years, time enough for genetic changes in the brain to program the algorithms of prepared learning, poisonous snakes have been a significant source of injury and death to human beings. The response to the threat is not simply to avoid it, in the way that certain berries are recognized as poisonous through painful trial and error, but to feel the kind of apprehension and morbid fascination displayed in the presence of snakes by the nonhuman primates. The snake image also attracts many extraneous details that are purely learned, and as a result the intense emotion it evokes enriches cultures around the world. The tendency of the serpent to appear suddenly in trances and dreams, its sinuous form, and its power and mystery are logical ingredients of myth and religion."

Myths, Reactions, and Antidotes

A powerful combination of stories, myths, and reinforced stereotypes can account for some of the irrational and sometimes absurd fears we manage to hold on to. Mention a vampire bat in conversation, and the reaction it conjures up for many is a tinge of uncertainty.

Although most of us know that these animals aren’t rodents nor blind, don’t fly into human hair, aren’t out to suck our blood, nor infect us with rabies, our first response is typically not affectionate.

Unless we make a conscious effort to educate ourselves a little better, especially if our initial reaction is one of fear, we’ll miss out important facts about bats: that they are key pollinators and dispensers of seeds, from bananas to mangoes to flowers; that they consume up to 1,200 insects per hour and multitudes of root worms; that they’re gentle. And that they’re strong candidates for extinction, with more than 50 percent of American species in serious decline or endangered. Although all mammals may contract rabies, less than half of a percent of the bats that contract the disease actually bite — and that, in self-defense.

Lynne Hull (www.wecsa.com/ecoart/), an environmental artist based in Fort Collins, Colorado, works internationally through art projects and sculptures to protect wildlife and promote education. "Teaching people the needs of wildlife is a big part of what I do," says Hull. A couple of years ago she developed, along with colleague Sue Thorton (yours truly provided the translation), a comic book about bats for children in rural Mexico to try and help them (and their fearful parents) understand the facts about bats. Hull is enthusiastic about many unloved animals. "I also did a multiple sculpture installation in an abandoned swimming pool called‘The Uglies Lovely’ because it turned out prettier than I expected and because it was for frogs, toads, newts, and bats — animals many people think of as ugly," she says.

Hull encourages people to express positive attitudes about all types of creatures. She suggests the following tips, which she herself uses to help dispel myths and face unfounded animal fears:

• Be particularly conscious of wildlife ethics in whatever you do.

• Instead of squashing spiders and other bugs you find in your home, catch them in film canisters or drinking glasses and let them go outdoors.

• Show a lot of interest in a critter that someone else seems to be fearful of and try to show that person (if she’s able to see beyond her fear) something unique and extraordinary about that animal.

• Hull also encourages visits to zoos and chats with education specialists and with watchable wildlife experts.

Insects and spiders are other living beings in the web of life that can sometimes cause us distress. From wasps to mosquitoes, the majority of people are at least a tad apprehensive, if not a tad afraid, of insects.

With the exception of mosquitoes and flies, most of us living in western societies that are highly urbanized and hygienically oriented don’t have much experience with many insects. Throughout history, however, we’ve learned that insects have been catalysts to allergic and toxic reactions and also carriers of diseases that can be fatal. And while diseases such as plague and yellow fever have been controlled, other types such as malaria are still not under control in many parts of the world.

Culturally we seem to have a universal repulsion for cockroaches and flies, and misinformation on critters such as moths and crickets also contribute to our angst. Some argue that most of our aversion to insects is learned from our families and members of society as opposed to personal traumatic experiences. To deal with a fear of insects, it can be a good idea to speak with entomologists or visit bug exhibits at zoos and museums. You can also try the high-tech route: scientists Hunter Hoffman and Al Carlin of the University of Washington’s Human Interface Technology Lab in Seattle are using a "mixed reality spider" that’s partially virtual and partially hairy toy to treat arachnophobia.

It’s also helpful to remember that only the insects that actually feed on blood, such as bedbugs, ticks, fleas, and mosquitoes, seek out humans. Other types of insects such as bees and spiders, don’t typically sting or bite unless they feel trapped or in serious danger.

Putting it all Together

If we choose to look at the education process as an adventure that can teach us more about nature, nurture, and history, we can give ourselves the gift of discovery and knowledge, even as we overcome our fears. And think of the benefits. For starters, as you scroll through alphabetical lists that describe the official name for the phobia or discomfort that may ring a bell, you’ll be immensely grateful for all the phobias or areas of apprehension that you don’t have.

Second, think of the vocabulary boost you’ll get after going through such a list of terms. My favorite word, strictly from a linguistic perspective, is one that describes a very particular type of fear, though it’s not animal related. Arachibutyrophobia. This is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit contestants, watch out!

But the biggest kick of learning in the face of irrational animal fears is peace of mind. Instead of gasping at the field mouse that dared enter your home, you could be hoping for a second sighting so that you can figure out its precise name. You could smile and be grateful that you got that humane trap, so that with the help of a little peanut butter (watch that arachibutyrophobia!) you could relocate him or her to the outdoors. And you — and your mouse friend — could be at peace.

Resources

Looking for a few places to start learning about critters? Try out these sources:

American International Rattlesnake Museum (claims the biggest collection of live rattlesnake varieties worldwide)

Bat Conservation International (excellent site for information about all sorts of bats)

Scientific American Frontiers’ Spiders! (This site offers oodles of information on spiders, including transcripts of numerous series on the crawly critters)

Education — Animals & Insects (This site offers good references on other sites of information about animals and bugs, including The Spencer Entomological Museum that features‘’Bug of the Month" data)

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