Scientists from Charles University in Prague have discovered that the fear of snakes has roots in evolutionary history. It has also been found that the intensity of fear depends on the head and body shape of the animals; Vipers with wider bodies and a distinctive head shape evoke more fear than snakes with thin bodies. Research results published In the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
55 Somalis and 144 Czechs participated in the research. The scientists recorded information about the participants’ gender and age and then asked them to rank pictures of different types of snakes according to increasing fearfulness. To eliminate bias, photographs were standardized by size and background. A total of 48 snake species were represented, including venomous (vipers and elapids) and non-venomous (sand boas and colubrids).
The results showed that most Somali and Czech participants were afraid of vipers. This suggests that humans have a strong, perhaps innate, fear response to vipers. Elapids (cobras and mambas) and ringworms are described as less fearsome than vipers, indicating different reactions depending on the type of snake.
Additionally, certain morphological features of the snakes, particularly body width, were good indicators of the level of fear expressed in the ratings. With their wider bodies and different head shapes, vipers appeared to inspire more fear than slender-bodied snakes. Interestingly, there was considerable cross-cultural agreement in rating the intensity of potential fear of different snake species; This suggests a universal or common aspect of people’s reactions to snakes.
Scientists have also suggested that the fear of snakes has roots in evolutionary history. Fear of snakes is a common phobia that relies on ancient self-defense mechanisms when being in a potentially dangerous environment.
Russian biologists before to create A new species of “eyelashed” snake appeared in Thailand.