Orlando Bloom: Swinophobiafear Of Pigs
Orlando Bloom, who is known for his good looks, his supermodel wife, and his role in Pirates of the Carribean, possesses a fear of pigs. This fear represents a phobia that is known as swinophobia. Orlando Blooms swinophobia became known when he was filming Kingdom of Heaven, at which time a pig ran loose on set and Bloom ran like crazy.
Why We Fear Snakes
04 March 2008
Fear of snakes is one of the most common phobias, yet many people have never seen a snake in person. So how is this fear generated?
New research suggests humans have evolved an innate tendency to sense snakes and spiders, too and to learn to fear them.
Psychologists found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars. The researchers think this ability helped humans survive in the wild.
“The idea is that throughout evolutionary history, humans that learned quickly to fear snakes would have been at an advantage to survive and reproduce,” said Vanessa LoBue, a post-doctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Virginia. “Humans who detected the presence of snakes very quickly would have been more likely to pass on their genes.”
Previously, anthropologists have suggested the need to notice snakes in the wild may have led early primates to develop better vision and larger brains.
Eew!
The researchers were inspired to investigate the fear of snakes when they thought about how universally people dislike the slithering legless lizards.
“This feeling is really common,” LoBue told LiveScience. “We dont see snakes all the time. There’s really no reason for this overwhelming disgust or hatred of snakes.”
LoBue’s collaborator, Judy DeLoache, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, happens to be petrified of snakes.
Phobias And Fears Of Insects And Reptiles Index Page
Below are links to further information on the fears and phobias of cockroaches, insects and bugs in general, snakes, spiders, and wasps and bees. This should not be regarded as the definitive list. If we wrote a page on every type of extreme fear or phobia it would be like writing War And Peace! In addition to the most common insect and reptile phobias listed below there are a host of other fairly common ones, like the phobia of maggots, fear of lizards, terror of woodlice, beetles, hornets, worms , Also, we dont have a page on the fear of fish anywhere on this web site , but some people do have one
HYPNOTHERAPY RECORDINGS
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What Is The Phobia Of Death
Thanatophobia is commonly referred to as the fear of death. More specifically, it can be a fear of death or a fear of the dying process. Its natural for someone to worry about their own health as they age. Its also common for someone to worry about their friends and family after theyre gone.
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Katie Holmes: Agrizoophobiafear Of Raccoons
Katie Holmes, who is well-known as an actress, a fashion icon, Tom Cruises ex-wife, and as Suri Cruises mother, possesses a fear of raccoons. This fear represents a part of the phobia that is known as agrizoophobia. According to Holmes, she has always been afraid of raccoons. When confronted with one of these animals, Katie prefers to either freak out or bark in response.
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Fears And Phobias Are Not Evenly Distributed Across Stimuli And Experiences
There appears to be an uneven distribution of fears, with some stimuli being very common foci for phobias , and otherequally potentially dangerous stimulionly rarely being reported as phobic stimuli .
The traditional explanation of this uneven distribution of fears has been a variant of conditioning theory called preparedness theory . This account hypothesizes that stimuli which tend to become the focus for fears and phobias are those which have been hazardous for our pretechnological ancestors . This has resulted in the evolution of phylogenetically-based predispositions to associate biologically prepared stimuli with aversive outcomes.
Support for the preparedness hypothesis has come from:
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Laboratory conditioning studies which have paired prepared CSs with aversive UCSs such as electric shock . These studies have demonstrated a greater resistance to extinction in prepared stimuli than unprepared stimuli .
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Studies of the observational learning of fear of snakes in primates. These studies have indicated that monkeys who are not initially afraid of snakes will rapidly acquire an intense fear when they have watched a wild-reared monkey behaving fearfully in response to a toy snake, but will regularly fail to acquire fear towards artificial flowers or a toy rabbit using the same paradigm .
A. Öhman, in, 2009
What Are The Symptoms Of Ophidiophobia
If you have a deep fear of snakes, you may experience one or more symptoms when you come near them, think about them, or engage with media containing snakes.
For example, if your co-worker discusses their pet ball python in the break room, you may have one or more of the following reactions:
- dizziness or lightheadedness
- difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- trembling and shaking
These symptoms may worsen as you get physically closer to a snake or as the time of a proposed snake interaction grows closer to happening.
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Are We Born With A Natural Fear Of Snakes
Psychologists found that both adults and children could detect images of snakes among a variety of non-threatening objects more quickly than they could pinpoint frogs, flowers or caterpillars. The researchers think this ability helped humans survive in the wild. The idea is that throughout evolutionary history, humans that learned quickly to fear snakes would have been at an advantage to survive and reproduce, said Vanessa LoBue, a post-doctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Virginia. Humans who detected the presence of snakes very quickly would have been more likely to pass on their genes.
Babies were found to display an acute response to images of snakes and spiders with more dilated eyes than of images of nice things like flowers. They were not necessarily displaying fear, but an acute sense of being able to learn quickly if the object was something that they should fear. They learned to react as their parents would react. In other-words they were not afraid they learned to be afraid. The ability to quickly detect something that might pose a danger and to learn just as quickly to fear it is a great self defense mechanism that we are born with but sometimes this turns into an irrational and overwhelming fear that takes over their lives.
Lyle Lovett: Bovinophobiafear Of Cows
Lyle Lovett, who is a well-known country singer, songwriter, and actor, possesses a fear of cows. This fear represents a phobia that is known as bovinophobia. According to Lovett, who is also Julia Roberts ex-husband, his bovinophobia stems from a severe leg fracture that he endured as a result of being attacked by a bull on his uncles ranch. When this star is confronted with cows, he feels helpless and runs away.
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Phobias Of Snakes Spiders Mice And Bugs
Can you believe that it is fall already and Halloween is almost here? We have had so much up down and weather that nature seems confused. I cannot believe the amount of calls I have been receiving lately about snake activity. Of course, between September and October and even into November, believe it or not, is one of my busiest times during snake season. Snake season for me is from March to October.
I deal with a lot of different clients in my field. Of course, with this comes phobias, mainly of snakes. But did you know a lot of people suffer from different types of phobias to other living creatures besides snakes? As a woman, perhaps I have more patience and a calmness when someone calls with a snake problem and they want to sell their house, move to a motel or even leave the country because they have a snake in the house or the front porch. They sometimes have issues with mice, rats, spiders, cockroaches, and various insect problems. I take these issues very seriously and that is why I wanted to write this week about phobias.
With Halloween approaching even the most innocent decoration can be fearful to some. Especially, if it depicts snakes, mice, bugs or spiders. Phobias or fears of have been know for thousands of years. But now in the modern age we have names of these phobias.
Tammy McCormack is a licensed professional snake trapper. She writes an online columm for the Frederick News-Post. You may reach her at or
Evolutionary Influences On Pavlovian Fear Conditioning
In the natural environment, it is not any sound or smell that is likely to warn a potential prey of a lurking predator, but sound or smells produced or emitted by the predator itself. Such systematic ecological relationships between the CS and the US could be used by evolution to facilitate fear conditioning to stimuli that have provided recurrent threats in mammalian evolutionary history. Thus, the product of the evolutionary processes already discussed need not necessarily be an innate snake fear it could be an evolved predisposition to very easily associate fear with snakes and similar threats.
These demonstrations suggest that evolution, rather than programming innate fears to specific stimuli, has generated predispositions to easily associate fear and avoidance to stimuli that are fear-relevant from an evolutionary perspective. Thus, not only are snakes the prototypical phobic stimulus, but phobias result from conditioning to a large but nonrandom set of situations that have in common that they involve some degree of threat , and more from an evolutionary than a contemporary perspective.
Gerald Goldstein, Michel Hersen, in, 2000
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Nadine Coyle: Many Animal Phobias
Nadine Coyle is a well-known singer, songwriter, actress, and model of Irish descent. Coyle possesses fears of many animals, which include dogs, cats, snakes, spiders, and rodents. The fear of dogs is known as cynophobia, the fear of cats is known as ailurophobia, the fear of snakes is known as ophidiophobia, the fear of spiders is known as arachnophobia, and the fear of rodents is known as musophobia.
What Is Ophidiophobia And What Are Symptoms
Ophidiophobia is the term used to describe an irrational or extreme fear of snakes.
It is a merge of the Greek words for snake and phobia, ophis and phobia.
Anthropologist Lynne Isbell has estimated that around a third of people are scared of snakes.
Some scientists have theorised that humankind has an innate aversion to snakes, as it is an instinctual way to spot danger.
Others believe that the fear is brought on by life-events.
The incapacitating fear can be sparked by a snake attack, or even reading about a particularly scary case.
Some sufferers have such an intense phobia that they may suffer anxiety or panic if they see pictures, videos or realistic drawings of snakes.
Other symptoms of ophidiophobia include emotional outbursts, trouble breathing, sweating, heart palpitations and nausea.
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List Of Phobias By Name
Phobias are listed on this page alphabetically by their medical or scientific label. If you are looking for a specific fear , go to the list of phobias by category
Listings underlined may indicate other more serious anxiety disorders such as OCD. Some phobias may also indicate self esteem issues, PTSD or forms of abuse. Please see About Phobias for more information
Bacillophobia- Fear of microbes.Batophobia Fear of heights or being close to high buildings.Batrachophobia Fear of amphibians, such as frogs, newts, salamanders, etc.Belonephobia Fear of pins and needlesBibliophobia Fear of books.Bogyphobia Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman.Botanophobia Fear of plants.Bromidrosiphobia or Bromidrophobia Fear of body smells.Brontophobia Fear of thunder and lightning.Bufonophobia Fear of toads.
Caligynephobia Fear of beautiful women.Cancerophobia or Carcinophobia Fear of cancer.
Carpophobia fear of wristsCardiophobia Fear of the heart.Carnophobia Fear of meat.Catagelophobia Fear of being ridiculed.Catoptrophobia Fear of mirrors.Cenophobia or Centophobia Fear of new things or ideas.Ceraunophobia Fear of thunder and lightning.Chaetophobia Fear of hair.Chemophobia Fear of chemicals or working with chemicals.Chiraptophobia Fear of being touched.Chirophobia Fear of hands.
or Fibriphobia or Fibriophobia Fear of fever.Felinophobia Fear of cats.Frigophobia Fear of cold or cold things.
Symptoms Of Fear Of Worms Phobia
The fear of worms often causes debilitating mental and physical symptoms.
- In Helminthophobia, the phobic believes that worms are crawling all over his/her body. As a result, s/he might shake, scratch or wash several times a day.
- Crying, screaming, trembling, feeling nauseated, having elevated heart rate, sweating are some other common symptoms of this phobia. The phobic might experience numbness or a detachment from reality in that s/he is unable to express his thoughts clearly.
- The phobic might avoid using a shovel to dig up the soil or even refuse to use public restrooms.
- Obsessive compulsive disorder is another symptom of Scoleciphobia. The phobic might wash or bathe several times a day or take extra precautions like cleaning his home and yard, or shutting doors and windows to prevent worms from accidently crawling inside the home.
- Often, Scoleciphobics fear they will see worms in their feces.
This persistent and irrational fear of worms can often lead to depression or being bullied or laughed at. Some phobics have actually quit college or given up certain jobs which involved encountering worms on a regular basis. Often the weather becomes a trigger factor to an extent that the phobic might insist on moving to cooler climate to avoid worms.
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How To Kill Psychi Mantis Twin Snakes
How To Kill Psychi Mantis Twin Snakes?
Are humans instinctively afraid of snakes? Research has found humans do not innately afraid of snakes, since new-born babies are usually not afraid of snakes. Additionally, it has been found that both adults and children could identify images of snakes from a range of objects much quicker than could detect frogs, flowers or caterpillars.
What does it mean when you are afraid of snakes? Ophidiophobia is a particular type of specific phobia, the irrational fear of snakes. It is sometimes called by a more general term, herpetophobia, fear of reptiles. The word comes from the Greek words ophis , snake, and phobia meaning fear.
What is the #1 phobia? 1. Arachnophobia: The fear of spiders. This phobia tends to affect women more than men. 2. Ophidiophobia: The fear of snakes.
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Adolf Hitler: Ailurophobiafear Of Cats
Adolf Hitler was not necessarily known as an idol or an icon, but he was known for his extremely cynical reputation as one if the most cruel and immoral leaders the World has every known. In addition, Hitler was known to possess a fear of cats. The fear of cats is known as ailurophobia.
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Afraid Of Snakes Your Pulvinar May Be To Blame
By Carl Zimmer
Multiple Walter Whites will walk the streets on Thursday in search of candy. But some frights endure the fashion cycle and never go out of style.
This week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists examines one particularly long-lasting source of fear: snakes. The researchers found that certain neurons in the brain only respond to these legless reptiles. These snake-dedicated neurons, they argue, are a legacy of our distant primate past, when the animals posed one of the greatest threats to our survival.
The new study builds on years of experiments by psychologists. They found that the widespread fear of snakes stems from a perceptual bias: people recognize snakes faster than other objects.
This bias toward snakes isnt simply the result of learning to fear them. Children recognize snakes just as quickly as adults. In a study published earlier this year in Developmental Science, psychologists found no difference in the response to snakes when they compared children who grew up in cities with children who grew up in rural areas where they regularly encountered snakes.
The fact that we share this bias toward snakes with monkeys suggests that it evolved in our common ancestors. When primates evolved some 60 million years ago, they adapted to living in trees, searching for food at night and sleeping in the canopy during the day. Snakes creeping through those trees were among their deadliest enemies.
Year Of The Caterpillar
In the case of tent caterpillars, for example, the moths produce eggs sacs where the larvae develop before going into a dormant phase called diapause. In spring, the larvae hatch and emerge as the worms were now seeing feast on our trees.
And if the conditions are right such as a warm, dry spring that many parts of the country experienced last year they thrive.
Its definitely the year of the caterpillar, Winnipeg insect-control branch superintendent Ken Nawolsky told CBCs Bartley Kives.
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What Are The Causes Of Ophidiophobia
Much like other specific phobias, a fear of snakes can come from a variety of causes. It may actually have multiple factors, each layered on top of the other, taking a latent fear and turning it into something anxiety inducing. Some causes of ophidiophobia include:
- A negative experience. A traumatic experience with a snake, especially at a young age, could leave you with a long-term phobia of the creatures. This could include being bitten or being in a frightening environment that prominently featured snakes and in which you felt trapped or helpless.
- Learned behaviors. If you grew up seeing a parent or relative demonstrating terror around snakes, then you may have learned they were something to fear. This is true of many specific phobias, including ophidiophobia.
- Portrayal in media. Often we learn to fear something because popular media or society tells us it is scary. Clowns, bats, mice, and indeed snakes often end up in this position. If you saw too many scary movies or frightening images featuring snakes over a long period of time, you could learn to be afraid of them.
- Learning about negative experiences. Hearing someone describe a frightening experience with a snake could be triggering. Fear often comes from the expectation of something causing pain or discomfort as opposed to a memory of actually experiencing it.