Why are people scared of spiders?

Question

Yea, that can inject venom and leave a nasty bite but they are slow and mind their own business. Why would anyone be scared of a spider?

Answer 1

It IS an interesting Q! Horror movies, I suppose; non-exposure; general ignorance of the types, too! I grew up in the country and wasn't partifularly afraid nor found of spiders. I then went to live in Japan for a year with my husband in the service, and there were house-spiders that lived in the house and served some sort of function, said my landlady, and not to kill them!! They were especially large: about 4" tall; leg-span at least 4"-5" wide and the body was about the size of a silver dollar! I was told that they would not hurt us--and that they killed something WORSE in the house!! I learned to live with this pair! They slept above my husband's and my head at night and I realized that since there was no heat in the house, the winter temperatures were below 29 degrees and that they were collecting the heat that eminated from our uncovered heads! The pair followed me around throughout the day--first, to the little porch-like "kitchen" with a hot plate and they hovered about 2-3' from my face as I was heating the tea kettle in the morning! They seemed to watch with interest and never made any aggressive move. My husband was frequently away for months on TDY, and at night, I read under my one floor lamp, sitting in my basket chair. Out of the darkness, out would walk the pair. The largest of the two--I guess the male--would stare at me; procede to walk the circle of light around my chair; then stare at me again as if saying, "Aren't you coming to bed yet?" then procede to the bedroom without me! After my husbands service was over, we left and I often wish I'd left a note for the new occupants of the wing to tell them of the friendly roommates. ---OH, I DID find out what they did eat--a HUGE fat segmented centipede dropped into my bath water one night! It also had two sharp stingers on one end! It had dropped from the rafters and I was out of there in a split-second!! UGLY!!! I later scolded the spiders for not being thorough! They seemed unmoved.

Answer 2

i'm not frightened of spiders, in fact, i admire spiders (flow forward, call me a creep). i think of human beings are petrified of spiders because of the fact they comprehend that they are in a position to chew. If a spider is sufficiently small, then you definately have no thought the place that's. One time while i became camping out, I awoke one morning and found out I have been bitten interior the face. A spider had crawled into my shirt while it became fabulous on the clothesline and as quickly as I placed it on, it became nonetheless there yet i did not comprehend it. i did not experience it chew me the two. i think of that once human beings right here approximately stuff like this, that's while they get relatively freaked out.

Answer 3

I got this one from my husband, just gave it to me...
This is a good theory, at least in my book.

It's an evolutionary trait that we've developed over time. It goes back to the idea of the reptilian, or 'old', brain. This is the core of our brain, and the most primal part.
It's called the reptilian brain because it's most like reptiles in it's development and structure. Reptiles tend to eat insects. They recognize the hallmarks given by nature to certain insects that warn the reptile "that is dangerous" or "that is tasty" and, as spiders have features that remind our old brain of those things that we would have distanced ourselves from, we have an inherent primal fear of these types of things.
Same reason that snakes frighten some of us.

It could be that the old brain is more prominent in some people than in others, just as any other part of the brain might be prominent in some more than others.
i.e. - some people have not evolved.....heh
(That last bit was mine...)

Answer 4

Because they're scary.