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Phobias passed down through evolution

Elaedith said:
A question is not a claim. The question does make the assumption that there is an evolutionary explanation but does not specify the nature of that explanation. There is in fact ample evidence of innate constraints on fear learning which pre-dispose primates, including humans, to acquire some types of fears more readily than others. This research has been applied to phobias specifically, and some of it has been applied specifically to common phobias for animals such as snakes.
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That's interesting. My understanding is there is a huge gap between observing a behavior in humans and saying there is an underlying evolutionary mechanism for promoting that behavior.

I would be willing to take a look at the fossil evidence though.
 
marplots said:
That's interesting. My understanding is there is a huge gap between observing a behavior in humans and saying there is an underlying evolutionary mechanism for promoting that behavior.

I would be willing to take a look at the fossil evidence though.
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That's the problem.
 
MikeG said:
Ancestors who were afraid of, and kept away from, spiders, snakes and rats must have had a higher survival rate than those that didn't if the behaviour is genetic. Well, in a snake- and venomous spider-infested environment, there's every chance that those who avoided those hazards would have had a higher survival rate. Same with rats and mice, which carry diseases.

However, "memes" also survive and mutate. That's all religion is, ultimately. The meme that creepy-crawlies are yucky is passed on as learned behaviour from generation to generation. If you nip it in the bud when your kids are young, they stop the silly squealing when they find a bug, and can actually show curiosity instead
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I recall an artile about an old superstition about how a spiderweb on a baby's cradle was good luck. Some researchers got curious and examined this, and determined that a web on a cradle really is good for the baby - the spider catches potentially disease spreading flying insects. Very important when growing up in a pre-vaccination and modern medicine age.

Overall, spiders are not very dangerous at all to humans, but are generally a big help with catching insects that ARE dangerous.

I have no idea, but is fear of spiders actually relatively new? I've got no clue what ancient peoples thought of spiders, but most myths I know of about spiders focus on the spider as a weaver, not as a "icky crawly scary thing".
 
Cat Not Included said:
I recall an artile about an old superstition about how a spiderweb on a baby's cradle was good luck. Some researchers got curious and examined this, and determined that a web on a cradle really is good for the baby - the spider catches potentially disease spreading flying insects. Very important when growing up in a pre-vaccination and modern medicine age.

Overall, spiders are not very dangerous at all to humans, but are generally a big help with catching insects that ARE dangerous.

I have no idea, but is fear of spiders actually relatively new? I've got no clue what ancient peoples thought of spiders, but most myths I know of about spiders focus on the spider as a weaver, not as a "icky crawly scary thing".
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This and related are/is why I have noted that there is no way to prove a connection between specific fears/phobias and aspects of evolutionary development. Thus lots of speculating but ultimately no proof without temporal displacement devices/procedures/capabilities!!

And the math says no (except the new guy who claims his math suggests a possibility but no actual procedure/design so far)......
 
marplots said:
I would be willing to take a look at the fossil evidence though.
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Would you be willing to look at other sorts of evidence? I suspect that they will be more forthcoming than fossil evidence considering we're discussing the evolution of behaviour, which, though not impossible, is hard to see in fossils.
 
Roboramma said:
Would you be willing to look at other sorts of evidence? I suspect that they will be more forthcoming than fossil evidence considering we're discussing the evolution of behaviour, which, though not impossible, is hard to see in fossils.
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Of course. What do you suggest? Gene sequences would be good.

The difficulty will be in connecting a loosely defined, extant behavior to a "before and after" condition demonstrating not only a survival advantage, but one in a context set against other possibilities/counterfactuals we do not see.

Are you thinking something along the lines of the "warrior gene" linked to aggression? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoamine_oxidase_A#Aggression_and_the_.22Warrior_gene.22
 
Go back ~7 million years and "the monster under the bed" would have been a very real possibility.
 
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