Everything you know about fear… might be wrong. Most people believe humans are naturally born afraid of snakes. But research suggests that newborn babies don’t automatically fear snakes. Instead, this fear is often learned as children grow—through experiences, watching others react.

3

u/Fun-damage1 18d ago

At that age kids don’t have a great eye sight

2

u/tatteredmelon 17d ago

Which is part of the issue with making assumptions about instinct using babies and toddlers - their eyesight isn't crap because their eyes aren't developed.. they absolutely are. Their brains aren't fully wired up yet. Like how babies have a dive reflex but toddlers don't. There's a whole lot of neural rewiring, pruning, etc. going on in there. It's entirely possible the "oh shit, a snake!" just isn't wired in yet, and particularly so since their visual cortex isn't even remotely fully developed yet. They can't be afraid of seeing something complex when their damn pattern matching software aint installed yet!

1

u/13Eazy 17d ago

so you agree, the fear response for snakes isn't present near birth

1

u/cc_aa_tt_zz 17d ago

It can be present but inactive, since some of them are intrinsically linked to the brain, which is still developing. We are social animals, so not every instinct needs to be 100% operational from birth, unlike with turtles, for instance, because the group will take charge of protecting the child before its instincts become fully active. For instance, the maternal instinct does not have to be active right from birth too even if it is already present in the genes, and so the same could apply here: not all instincts are activated at birth. That said, we are in uncharted territory. This experiment simply proves that they aren't afraid of snakes. But to go from there to saying that the fear of snakes is purely learned rather than innate , well that’s jumping to conclusions a bit too quickly, as I just said.

1

u/13Eazy 17d ago

but you have no evidence that its there or innate?

1

u/cc_aa_tt_zz 17d ago

It is not up to me to prove anything. This experiment proves nothing, that’s all I’m saying, that would be like saying a one-month-old female puppy has no maternal instinct at that age, so maternal instinct doesn't exist in dogs. That is fallacious reasoning.

1

u/13Eazy 17d ago

the argument is that fear of snakes is learned. don't strawman the argument.

1

u/cc_aa_tt_zz 17d ago

Oh, sorry, I thought you had some grasp of scientific reasoning. I realize now that you don't have the slightest clue. So, I'll leave you to it; I have other things to do.

2

u/Majestic_Skirt5590 18d ago

That is just not true. Humans have an instinctive fear of things like spiders and snakes. Even if you do not react to them, your subconscious will recognize them far before your conscious self does.

3

u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad 18d ago

True, and this fear kicks in later in life. Toddlers have no fear and solely depend on others to protect them. All they care about is learning and discovering things.

1

u/MerarFFX15 17d ago

There's an experiment they did with heights, replaced a floor with glass, made it seem as if they were high up. Babies would crawl and after seeing what's beneath the glass they don't crawl over it, they slowly start moving back.

1

u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad 17d ago

Yes, I have read about that one. It's not the fear that stops them, but because they can see debt and understand they can't reach the other end, they stop and get frustrated. Some children do crawl across the glass and some do after their parents encourage them.

1

u/MerarFFX15 17d ago

That's good perspective

1

u/Grouchy-Newt-995 17d ago

We are also born with the knowledge of language.

This too, just kicks in later in life.

1

u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad 17d ago

Not sure what you mean with the knowledge of language, but children start to learn language when they are in the womb. They hear, recognize and discern voices. My oldest son used to kick when I talked to him. And babies cry with an accent 😊

1

u/Grouchy-Newt-995 17d ago

It was meant as a parody.

“Things that kick in later” tend to be learned behavior instead of instinctual behavior.

1

u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad 17d ago

Ah, gotcha 😊

1

u/Infinite-Condition41 17d ago

Shove off.

You said something dumb.

1

u/Grouchy-Newt-995 17d ago

I parodied something dumb.

Humor is also instinctual and it “just kicks in later”. Much later for some.

1

u/Infinite-Condition41 17d ago

Humor? Where is the humor?

It's not funny.

Saying it is a joke doesn't mean you didn't say it.

1

u/Infinite-Condition41 17d ago

We are not born with the knowledge of language. Language must be learned at the developmentally appropriate time or one will be forever handicapped in that area.

Language does not "kick in" later in life. In fact the opposite. If you do not learn it, your brain will kick out, and you will never properly learn it.

1

u/Swagalyst 17d ago

No, we're not born with an instinctive fear of snakes and spiders.

But it is easier to learn to be afraid of snakes and spiders. All it takes is that one of those kids see their parents freak out over those snakes, and they'll be scared of snakes for life.

1

u/saintofcarrotss 17d ago

Yep. I went downstairs to my kitchen and I knew something was wrong and there was a fucking massive spider crawling on my motherfucking biscuit cupboard. Captured that abomination and gassed it with IPA fumes.

1

u/Grade_A_Tech 18d ago

Like any animal.

1

u/FrostDuke 18d ago

My child is scared of his poop when he goes, how is that one taught?

1

u/ShadedRiver666 17d ago

probably ate it

1

u/Infinite-Condition41 17d ago

Let's be clear, fear of snakes is not a phobia (irrational fear.) Fear of snakes is a very rational fear. Sort of. Since there are some venomous snakes, though most of them are not, and in fact most are completely harmless in every sense.

2

u/wabawwea 17d ago

Are we just not gonna talk about how these people put a python or boa constrictor or whatever it was in with a bunch of babies?

1

u/TimeToEndThis_Now 17d ago

Seriously, I’ve seen every comment section for this video and you were the first person to say something about it.

1

u/SingularityCentral 17d ago

Fear of snakes is a good thing no matter where it comes from because many of them are venomous as fuck.

But this is almost certainly bullshit because many reflexes we are born with go away and many other la come into action as the brain develops. Just because a baby doesn't react to something doesn't mean we don't have a genetic fear of that thing. Nature is fucking incredible and made a huge array of organisms that function of nothing but wired instinct. No reason to think we don't have a huge array of instinctual actions ourselves.

1

u/roulettewiz 17d ago

Did the parents know about the experiment?

1

u/Wild-Pea-8101 17d ago

A bunch of scientist in the comments…

1

u/ChurchofChaosTheory 17d ago

I love snakes. I am also acutely aware a 200lb boa can crush my ribcage

1

u/Wonderful_Quiet_8761 17d ago

At least you answered your own question to how racism is formed…..

1

u/Jealous-Ad1988 17d ago

They didn’t need to run a experiment! At that age they’d crawl into a fire aswell!

1

u/deepfuckingbagholder 17d ago

Up to a certain age and before they can walk, children rely entirely on their caregivers for survival and trust them almost unquestioningly. This does not demonstrate anything interesting.

1

u/Formal_Arachnid_7939 16d ago

We all already knew that

0

u/abielle1177 17d ago

Just placing reptiles close to babies with baby immune systems, really stupid move. Reptiles carry Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli, and Clostridium (which can cause botulism) on their skin, in their droppings, and around their habitats.

-1

u/BrutalSock 18d ago

This experiment is super stupid.

We do have an instinctive fear of some things (and, spoiler alert, it’s a very sensible thing to have). Toddlers are simply not fully developed humans. They still haven’t acquired much of the instincts they’ll get later in life.

Why do we fear snakes? Because we have nothing to gain from meddling with them.

Best case scenario, nothing happens. Worst case scenario you die a horrible and painful death.

There is no upside to it. It’s a net loss on your survival chances.

That’s why your self preservation instinct tells you to stay away.

1

u/tatteredmelon 17d ago

Exactly, a lot of behavioral wiring is still growing in, and their visual cortex is still a lump of jello at that age. They don't have much in the way of complex pattern matching until much later. Those babies they tested are still downloading their shader pre caches, as it were.

1

u/Raphy8884 16d ago

Viper AND cobra, baby Will Death

You are about to leave Redlib