Girls 'born with fear of spiders'
A new study in the US suggests that women have a genetic aversion to dangerous animals, such as spiders.
The research, published in the New Scientist, says women are born with character traits that were ingrained in our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
As child protectors, they have to shun animals that threaten them or their young off-spring, researchers said.
Previous research suggested women were actually up to four times more likely to be afraid of creatures like spiders.
The new research was headed up by developmental psychologist, Dr David Rakison, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, 10 baby girls, and 10 baby boys were subjected to a number of pictures of spiders to gauge their reactions.
First the babies were shown a picture of a spider with a fearful human face, followed by images of a spider paired with a happy face - alongside an image of a flower twinned with a fearful face.
The results showed that the girls - some as young as 11 months old - looked longer at the picture of the happy face with a spider than the boys, who looked at both images for an equal time.
Read more @ BBC News
Re: Girls 'born with fear of spiders'
Re: Girls 'born with fear of spiders'
[quote=Ya'qub][quote=ThE pOwEr Of SiLeNcE]
u shouldnt generalise :P[/quote]
why not?
being able to generalise about things is a useful skill that humans have. we shouldn't fight against it.[/quote]
ok.
[quote=Ya'qub]
n.b. generalising is different from discriminating.[/quote]
i know.
Re: Girls 'born with fear of spiders'
girls dont be scared of spiders! spiders are cool, havnt u heard the story of the prophet ﷺ and Abu Talib (RA) in the cave?! xD 😛
Re: Girls 'born with fear of spiders'
How ridiculous! Another example of humans wasting their time with meaningless tasks.
Perhaps the females are just more intelligent than males at that age so as to ignore the "angry face".
Perhaps the females focus more on the positive happiness than the males.
My daughter (who is 3) has no fear of spiders. I have a video of her with a big tarantula crawling over her hands from less than a week ago.
My wife on the other hand will react like an insane person even if a small spider is near her.
Perhaps it is from experiences that we develop fears or from others around us that have those fears. I'm sure there is a better explanation than simply using senseless man-made photo's of spiders with human faces. What a farce!
Re: Girls 'born with fear of spiders'
[quote=Abbas]
My daughter (who is 3) has no fear of spiders. I have a video of her with a big tarantula crawling over her hands from less than a week ago.
[/quote]
WHAT?!!?!!
How could you do that to your daughter?!??!?!!
Nutter!!!
[quote=ThE pOwEr Of SiLeNcE]
u shouldnt generalise :P[/quote]
why not?
being able to generalise about things is a useful skill that humans have. we shouldn't fight against it.
n.b. generalising is different from discriminating.