The Rationality of an Irrational Snake Phobia

Phobias by definition are irrational fears. People with phobias go well out of their way to avoid whatever theyre afraid of to the point that others might find them acting ridiculously, and their ability to live a normal life is significantly impaired. One of the most common phobias is a snake phobia, which could be debilitating if you have many reptile enthusiasts in your life, though snakes are not so common that theyre unavoidable.

A fear of snakes in general isnt too unreasonable. We might automatically associate snakes with poison, but not all snakes are poisonous. Still, there are some pretty dangerous snakes out there like the Jarararcussu, which can kill 32 people with the venom in one bite. It might be a good idea to have a snake phobia so that youll want to avoid coming into contact with that one. Anyway, fear itself is biologically programmed into us. Every one of us has a sympathetic nervous system, characterized by fight or flight. Our heart rate increases, our pupils dilate, and we might feel a burst of adrenaline when we encounter something potentially harmful to us, and we do something to prevent that harm. Lots of times this involves running away or avoiding the fearful thing in the first place.

Is it possible that a snake phobia is somewhat programmed into us as well? In a study, lab monkeys who were never exposed to snakes learned to be afraid of them after watching a video in which wild monkeys fearfully reacted to a snake. Next, the researchers tried to instill a fear of flowers in the monkeys by showing the same video manipulated so that there was a flower instead of the snake. However, the monkeys didnt develop the same fear they did for snakes. This suggests that there is biological preparedness for certain objects.

A snake phobia is definitely more extreme than a mere fear of snakes, but maybe people are more susceptible to developing a snake phobia because our bodies are biologically prepared to fear dangerous snakes. We dont have the exact biological makeup as monkeys do, but snakes can be a danger to both monkeys and humans. Maybe its irrational to fear every snake in existence but in any case, your safety is the most important thing and if a snake phobia functions to keep you away from dangerous snakes, then more power to it.