According to Science News, an upcoming research study shows evidence that women may be primed to develop phobias of snakes and spiders. David Rakison, of Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, conducted an experiment pairing happy and frightened cartoon faces with various nature pictures. His results show that infant girls more readily connected the frightened faces with pictures of spiders and snakes.
The Experiments
Two separate experiments were conducted, each using 11-month-old babies. Ten boys and 10 girls participated in each experiment. Before each experiment began, all of the children were tested to determine if they looked for a longer period of time at any specific image. None favored any image.
In the first experiment, the babies were shown paired images. Either a happy or frightened cartoon face was paired with a picture of a snake or spider. After a brief exposure to the initial pairings, the pairs were reversed. For example, if a happy face was shown with a snake the first time, then a frightened face was displayed with a new snake on the second round.
The second experiment was identical to the first, except that the happy and frightened faces were paired with pictures of flowers and mushrooms rather than snakes and spiders. All other factors were the same.
The Results
Results were measured by the babies’ reactions to the second set of images. If the baby had “learned” the initial pairing, then he or she would spend longer looking at the re-paired images, which would seem like a violation of what the baby had just learned.
Interestingly, the female babies who were initially shown frightened faces paired with snakes or spiders spent the most time looking at the second pairing of those images with happy faces. The boys did not show the reaction. None of the babies in the second experiment showed particular reactions to either happy or frightened faces paired with images of flowers or mushrooms.
What Does This Mean?
The sample size was very small, using only 40 babies altogether. Therefore, Rakison is now developing larger-scale studies to see if he can duplicate the results. In the meantime, his theory is that this may be evidence of an evolutionary tendency for women to fear predators. After all, in prehistoric times, a woman being bitten by a poisonous spider or snake might leave her children alone and in danger. By contrast, men needed to be brave and daring in order to hunt for food and protect their families.
Of course, there are many other explanations for the results as well. In the Science News article, researcher Vanessa LoBue, of the University of Virginia Charlottesville, points out that girls tend to recognize facial expressions earlier than boys do. Perhaps the female babies simply discriminated the faces more easily, thus being more attuned to changes in those faces. However, this does not explain why the girls in the second experiment did not react to facial changes when paired with images of mushrooms and flowers.
Individual Reactions and Phobias: Lisa’s Take
I will be interested to see the results of further research. I happen to be a female with a terrible fear of spiders, yet I absolutely love snakes. Many of my female friends raise both snakes and spiders as pets. Likewise, I know several men who are afraid of either or both. Clearly, it is too simplistic to say that women fear these animals and men do not.
It has been my experience that in order for a phobia to develop, several factors must be in place. A past negative experience with the object or situation is almost always a critical component. The past event may have been personal or may have happened to someone else, or in some cases, may simply have been viewed on television or told as a story, but it usually exists.
A variety of personal factors are also at work in determining whether a phobia will develop. Overall stress level, coping skills, existence or absence of other psychological disorders, mood at the time of the precipitating event, and many other circumstances help to determine whether a phobia occurs.
Is it possible that there is some underlying evolutionary mechanism that makes it more likely for girls to develop fears of snakes and spiders? Certainly this is possible. According to the literature review cited in the study, phobias of both snakes and spiders are four times more likely to affect women than men. Still, do the results of this study make a great deal of difference in determining whether that fear will actually develop? At this point, I don’t think so. From a research perspective, it may be interesting, but I see the results of this study having very little impact on determining who will actually develop a snake or spider phobia. More importantly, I think it has virtually no impact on the treatment or management of these phobias.
