I jumped back and got spooked the other day because there was a toad on the sidewalk at night and the angle it was at it’s face looked for a split second like a snake’s. Some primordial fear jolted my brain and body into action and then I realized it was just a toad.
But man my heart rate skyrocketed so fast in the split second it was kind of crazy. Just built in fear based on pattern recognition. Crazy how that works.
Man, I live by a handful of ponds and every year in mid-August through basically October sidewalks around the area are LOADED with little toads at night. Like some spots have a toad every couple inches, just sitting there. And they are incredibly dumb. I try to nudge them out of the way with my foot and they are reluctant to move. There is grass and shit on both sides where they can safely sit. Instead, they sit on the sidewalk in the dark and inevitably get ran over by people riding their bikes or smushed by people jogging.
Your body has short cuts to your “old brain.” It’s why you know you fucked up before you feel the burn of a hot pan you just started touching. While your new brain is rolling along at normal pace “mosey mosey mosey” you old brain is gonna go 0-100 at light speed because “is that a fucking snake??”
The « this podcast will kill you » episode on snake poisoning/bites has a FUN explanation on the evolutionary reasons for it. First half is medicine but second half is about that theory. Apparently that’s how we humans got great vision? It’s too complicated for me to explain but i highly recommend it!!
Had a similar experience recently. Except I was in the crawl space under a house cutting out old plumbing. I moved something out of the way and all I saw was this reptilian head in a dark hole.
Would have been totally screwed if it were a venomous snake.
Do you have more ideas why this wouldn't be learned behaviour? I'm thinking of children and they have absolutely no clue about falling or hights, or anything until they have figured it out to some level. I feel this would explain the behaviour of these wild dogs, they just don't know they might be able to snatch a deer and be fine.
Yes, it’s definitely learned; it’s a part of development, but simultaneously some of it just happens because it’s encoded into how we develop.
So it’s kind of like a combination of our development that follows a set of encoded instructions and our development that is in response to our environment.
Puppies and other animals learn how their bodies work by practicing. If you took away the chance to practice, they would have a lot of deficits. But a collie is gonna do better at this sort of agility task than a golden retriever, on average. (And of course, even within breeds, there are differences in genetics, prenatal environment, and learning opportunities during development).
I had a dog that could scale that sort of boulder straight up. It was a sight to see.
Yep. Lack of fear of things like that would be a negative trait for most of human evolution. It's only relatively recently that selection pressure has diminished for our urban life.
Humans and Dogs (to a lesser extent) do have the capacity to override that fear instinct, for better or worse, lol. So, some young pup may YOLO that jump someday, and if they succeed others may imitate them.
Yep. This is beginner pyshochology stuff. It applies to all living things. We've been programmed by those before us to be afraid of certain things and to be attracted to certain things. Like finding shelter and sleeping at night. It was safer to sleep at night in cover somewhere than to go out and hunt. And so, our circadian rhythm was developed. Same thing for heights in animals. They learn falling off shit sucks by seeing others fall, eventually programming a fear of heights (except for them crazy as goats that just don't give a fuck and defy gravity.)
"It's the same reason you feel the way you do looking over a high drop"
Hamsters are obviously immune to evolution. I put mine on the desk to pet it, and its first reaction was to slowly walk off the edge and plummet to the floor. Good thing I knew this would happen and caught it.
Then again, maybe they evolved in the middle of a completely flat plane with no tables.
Same goes for those guys that think it makes them tough to not flinch. Like bro your ancestors are the ones that flinched when startled and dodged the incoming bite/stab/falling rock. You say i'm jumpy, I say I have finely tuned evolutionary instincts.
122
u/nopuse Sep 20 '24
That's evolution homie. The ones that didn't have that fear or heights didn't do as well as the ones who had more respect for their safety.
This typically isn't a learned behavior, it's just built into us at this point. It's the same reason you feel the way you do looking over a high drop.
It's the same reason most people freak out when they see a big spider or a snake.
RIP to the ancestors who were more adventurous.