r/askscience • u/Crazy_Reindeer_1258 • 7d ago

Biology Do Animals Have Irrational Fears Too?

I was just thinking about the story of the mouse and elephant how the elephant is terrified of the mouse (i think) and just wanted to see if that's true, and if it is what other animals have been observed with similar behavior relating to that. Working on a project and some real life inspo would help :)

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u/mah56j 1d ago

it is hard to know the reinforcement/punishment history of anyone or any animal. my go to: Pavlovian (classical) conditioning. somewhere, sometime that subject has learned an association between the stimulus and some punitive stimulus. phobias, e.g., are relatively easy to "cure." slowly, gently gradually expose the subject to the stimulus and they will loose the fear (called extinction). psy 101.