irishbunny
Well-Known Member
Thought this was interesting, I have noticed women are more likely to be scared of spiders then men.
Women who run for cover when coming face-to-face with a spider have been offered a new explanation for their phobia: it is in their genes.
Research at a US university found females associate the eight-legged critters with fear more than males, most of whom react with indifference.
Psychologist Dr David Rakison from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University tested 10 girls and 10 boys, all aged 11-months, with pictures of spiders to see how they reacted.
He showed them images of a spider next to a fearful cartoon face and a spider next to a happy face.
Dr Rakison's report, published in the New Scientist, states that the girls looked at the picture containing a happy face for longer than the scared one.
However, the boys looked at both images for an equal amount of time.
He concluded that the girls found the happy face puzzling as they were expecting to see the spider paired with a frightened face.
The psychologist said these tests show that girls have a genetic predispostion to fear the arachnids in contrast with boys who do not.
"The experiments show that female 11-month-olds - but not males of the same age - learn the relation between a negative facial expression and fear-relevant stimuli such as snakes and spiders," Dr Rakison reported in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
He linked the difference in results to our hunter-gatherer ancestry when he says women had to be wary of dangerous animals to protect their children, whereas men used more risky behaviour in order to be successful hunters.
Past surveys have shown that almost 6% of the population have a phobia of snakes and around 4% are scared of spiders.
However, women are around four times more likely to be affected than men.
Men now have no excuse but to help a woman in need when next summoned to remove an unwelcome visitor from the bath.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090903/tod-why-women-are-really-afraid-of-spide-870a197.html
Women who run for cover when coming face-to-face with a spider have been offered a new explanation for their phobia: it is in their genes.
Research at a US university found females associate the eight-legged critters with fear more than males, most of whom react with indifference.
Psychologist Dr David Rakison from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University tested 10 girls and 10 boys, all aged 11-months, with pictures of spiders to see how they reacted.
He showed them images of a spider next to a fearful cartoon face and a spider next to a happy face.
Dr Rakison's report, published in the New Scientist, states that the girls looked at the picture containing a happy face for longer than the scared one.
However, the boys looked at both images for an equal amount of time.
He concluded that the girls found the happy face puzzling as they were expecting to see the spider paired with a frightened face.
The psychologist said these tests show that girls have a genetic predispostion to fear the arachnids in contrast with boys who do not.
"The experiments show that female 11-month-olds - but not males of the same age - learn the relation between a negative facial expression and fear-relevant stimuli such as snakes and spiders," Dr Rakison reported in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
He linked the difference in results to our hunter-gatherer ancestry when he says women had to be wary of dangerous animals to protect their children, whereas men used more risky behaviour in order to be successful hunters.
Past surveys have shown that almost 6% of the population have a phobia of snakes and around 4% are scared of spiders.
However, women are around four times more likely to be affected than men.
Men now have no excuse but to help a woman in need when next summoned to remove an unwelcome visitor from the bath.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090903/tod-why-women-are-really-afraid-of-spide-870a197.html
