 Funnel web spider Tegenaria atrica. It lives often in houses and is the most feared spider if people suffer from Arachnophobia (photo: www.wikipedia.de)
Now scientists from the university of Wuerzburg, Germany, tested this explanation. They confronted the test persons with different pictures of insects (like bees, beetles or moths) and spiders. Although bees and wasps and numerous other insects are more poisonous than spiders in general are, most of the probands specified the pictures of spiders as most dangerous and disgusting. This finding is contradictory to the hypothesis which usually explains arachnophobia.
Adaptation to bees and wasps caused less fear
If poison was the reason for fear of spiders than bees and wasps would cause a much higher degree of anxiety in the test persons argue the scientist. This was not the case in the study. Probably due to the more developed adaptation to bees and wasps humans in general feel less fear of those arthropods than of spiders. Bees for example are used as source for honey and when a person got stung by bees one learns that bee stings in general are not deadly. The same applies for spider bites which in only few species are really dangerous for humans (mainly in tropical regions).
So if more people had got bitten by spiders in the past than there would be less arachnophobia world wide because then people had learned that spiders are more afraid from us than we have fear of them.
Sudden appearance and quick movements reason for arachnophobia?
Other explanation which are often given for arachnophobia: the sudden appearance of spiders, their strange body form and that they often appear very close to the body of humans (in the bath room, in the bed where we usually feel save and comfortable and at other places in our houses). Also the quick and unpredictable movements of spiders we meet involuntarily can be a reason for fear and disgust.
Probably also education is an important reason for arachnophobia. So this fear often is "bequeathed" from mother to child. This educational factor might be an important one. Archnophobia is seldom or totally absent in native people where spiders often are used as food even.
Probably arachnophobia is not caused by one definite reason but by a combination of different reasons: archaic instincts, few opportunities for adaptation and cultural respectively educational factors together cause this widespread phobia.
From arachnophobia to arachnophilia
A cure for this phobia can be achieved by a kind of "confrontation therapy" when the person who suffers from arachnophobia is confronted with the fear by the therapist. The person goes through the fear and learns that after the fear is over it is not getting worse. Often it ends up with even touching big spiders like bird eating spiders which are often used by the therapists.
The cured persons often afterwards turn from archnophobia to arachnophilia - love of spiders - turning them into their favourite pets.
Source: Spiders are special: fear and disgust evoked by pictures of arthropods. Antje B.M. Gerdes, Gabriele Uhl, Georg W. Alpers. Evolution and Human Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.08.005)
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