# Is there a difference between Arachnophobia and common Idiot Fear of Spiders? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 21, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542 "2015-05-21T20:04:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/41 "2015-05-25T14:02:01Z")
You probably want to admonish the OP then. She’s the one who equated feminism the movement / ology with statistical similarity of psychology between the sexes. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/42 "2015-05-26T06:56:59Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > _“Total point prevalence of any specific phobia was 19.9% (26.5% for females and 12.4% for males). In total, 21.2% women and 10.9% men met criterias for any single specific phobia. Multiple phobias was reported by 5.4% of the females and 1.5% of the males. Animal phobia had a prevalence of 12.1% in women and 3.3% in men. Point prevalence of situational phobia was 17.4% in women and 8.5% in men.”_ Your link didn’t work, but I found a similar one: > **[Gender and age differences in the prevalence of specific fears and phobias -...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8561762/)** > > Point prevalence of specific fears and phobias was determined in 704 respondents of 1000 randomly selected adults aged 18-70 yr. A phobia for lightning, enclosed spaces, darkness, flying, heights, spiders, snakes, injections, dentists and/or injuries... [INDENT][INDENT] In total, 21.2% women and 10.9% men met criterias for any single specific phobia. Multiple phobias was reported by 5.4% of the females and 1.5% of the males. **Animal phobia had a prevalence of 12.1% in women and 3.3% in men.** Point prevalence of situational phobia was 17.4% in women and 8.5% in men. For mutilation phobia no gender difference was observed, being presented in 3.2% of the women and 2.7% of the men. Women as compared to men gave higher fear ratings for all objects and situations. Inanimate object fears and phobias were more common in older than younger individuals. Animal fears were more intense in younger than in older individuals.[/INDENT][/INDENT] Emphasis added. Animal phobias included fear of spiders. Sample size was 704. -mfm Straight male with a fear of heights. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/43 "2015-05-26T14:46:26Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > I can only surmise that most people who are afraid of spiders are not truly arachnophobic, rather they are simply idiots. Why am I an idiot because I have a fear of spiders? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/44 "2015-05-26T14:58:34Z")
> [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](#): > > Why am I an idiot because I have a fear of spiders? For one thing, the vast majority of spiders you encounter are of zero danger to you. Are you afraid of cars? Cars are much more likely to kill you. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/45 "2015-05-26T15:55:29Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **Flyer** : no… It doesn’t work to appeal solely to the number of legs. > > I’m phobic about pictures of spiders…but not about pictures of scorpions, crickets, ants, bees, or most other critters with eight or six legs. I’m not even the slightest bit phobic about (fantasy) depictions of Odin’s eight-legged horse, or human figures with eight legs. A (fantasy) painting of an eight-legged dog or cat would not cause me distress. > > It isn’t just the number of legs. It’s something in the arrangement of a spider’s legs, the angles that they stick out at, the way they bend, and the way the legs move independently. > > A mime once did a really lovely job of moving his fingers in the way a spider’s legs move. Wigged me right out. It triggered the phobic reaction, something hands and fingers ordinarily never do. > > Same with people with a phobia of snakes. If you show them a dog or cat that has no legs, they might feel sorrow or pity or even ordinary horror – “That poor animal!” – but it wouldn’t trigger a phobic reaction the way a real snake – or even a rubber snake – would. > > Some people with a phobia of snakes also react badly to worms…but some do not. It isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. Sounds like you and I have the same level of phobia. Insects do not bother me and I can watch lobsters or scorpions with no problem. But spiders touch something deep inside me, something that is part fear and part revulsion, and it is as much part of me as my love for rollercoasters and cheeseburgers. I have gotten better. It used to be scream and run from a room if spiders were in it, unless I had too kill them (bathroom). Now I can manage to see them in nature or in zoos without a problem, and if there are some in my yard, I can live and let live. Come into my house, however, and it is still RAT SMASH! Strange enough, I can watch movies with GIANT spiders and suspend my disbelief so that I can enjoy them…but movies that feature regular-sized spiders like Arachnaphobia…never seen it, never plan to see it. Fear is not rational but it sure makes for interesting discussion… ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/46 "2015-05-26T17:36:16Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Your link didn’t work, but I found a similar one: > > [Gender and age differences in the prevalence of specific fears and phobias - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561762) > [INDENT][INDENT] In total, 21.2% women and 10.9% men met criterias for any single specific phobia. Multiple phobias was reported by 5.4% of the females and 1.5% of the males. **Animal phobia had a prevalence of 12.1% in women and 3.3% in men.** Point prevalence of situational phobia was 17.4% in women and 8.5% in men. For mutilation phobia no gender difference was observed, being presented in 3.2% of the women and 2.7% of the men. Women as compared to men gave higher fear ratings for all objects and situations. Inanimate object fears and phobias were more common in older than younger individuals. Animal fears were more intense in younger than in older individuals.[/INDENT][/INDENT] Emphasis added. Animal phobias included fear of spiders. Sample size was 704. > > -mfm > Straight male with a fear of heights. I once heard a hypothesis tied in with the theory that proto-humans went through a semi-aquatic, littoral habitat span, that the ♫ I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes ♫ gender gap had to do with crabs and morays encountered by the female foragers. Not saying I believe it, necessarily. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/47 "2015-05-26T17:48:44Z")
I don’t have much fear of spiders but I do not like getting spider webs in my face. I also creep out when under a house and I feel something crawling on the back of my neck. Too many spider webs under a house and I really have to get my courage up to crawl under. As long as I can see the spider I am fine. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/48 "2015-05-26T18:32:45Z")
Speaking from the experience of my own - mild - phobia, I think it stems from a bad experience at around three, with spill-over onto other things which are relatively harmless, but look similar. I have a mild phobia to caterpillars. :o I think it began with grabbing a saddleback (tussock moth) caterpillar and got generalized into all caterpillars. Also slugs, leeches, and interestingly, earthworms under the right conditions. Snakes don’t bother me at all (although I get REAL cautious around rattlers), mealworms and such don’t affect me, nor do snails. But if I start to pick up an earthworm that’s stretched out normally and it contracts lengthwise to short and wide I will automatically twitch and jerk my hand away. :eek: Something about the “aspect ratio” triggers the reaction until my rational mind gets control. I can get control of it enough to allow a kid to put a caterpillar on my hand, but the witnesses said that my hair was standing up until I looked like a werewolf just starting to transform. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/49 "2015-05-26T20:28:10Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > . . . Strange enough, I can watch movies with GIANT spiders and suspend my disbelief so that I can enjoy them…but movies that feature regular-sized spiders like Arachnaphobia…never seen it, never plan to see it. Interesting! To me, the size isn’t really relevant, just the…I dunno…gestalt of spiderness. For instance, I can’t cope with the stupid alien daddy-longlegs thing in the opening of the animated Jonny Quest tv show. I love the show, but I always have to look somewhere else when that thing creeps onto the screen. I was quite young when watching old 1950’s giant spider monster flicks on a grainy black-and-white TV…but they tore me up inside pretty badly. Really hurt me when I was a kiddle. > [@](#): > > Fear is not rational but it sure makes for interesting discussion… Definitely! Some time ago, I believe on the SDMB, someone argued that it is impossible to have a phobia of hand grenades, because the fear of such things is perfectly rational. But what if someone reacts with fear/panic/stress to a picture of a hand grenade? That’s getting back into the region of a phobia. I think it’s wrong to try to rationalize the phobia at all. I could argue, “I don’t know which spiders are venomous and which are harmless, and, since some are dangerous, it is valid for me to be afraid of them all.” But that isn’t the basis for my fear: the sight of a spider just makes me go apeshit inside. Zero rational content whatever. ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/50 "2015-05-28T02:44:37Z")
I was arachnophobic. I couldn’t touch pictures and most nights I’d wake up screaming from the large spiders crossing the bed to get me. I am in Australia. Every bush walk was spent brushing off the imagined spiders. The fear and irrational reactions grew worse until it was really impacting on life and that of my family. We’d moved to a house in the bush and they were everywhere. So, being a science writer and knowing this was irrational, I started studying them - the little ones in the webs on the OTHER side of the windows. Slowly, with knowledge and following individuals, the fear eased. Then one day I watched an orb weaver spin her web in real time on my own garden. I was a convert. I have studied them every since and am now irrationally obsessed by them. They are the most extraordinary creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/51 "2015-05-28T10:07:38Z")
**lynne-42** : I wish that I – mildly arachnophobic, finding spiders interesting creatures which I wish I were able to like – were more in a position to take the route which you tell of. However, I live in a city in England; and such spiders that there may be in my house, seem considerately to stay out of my way: I rarely see one. (I do sometimes wonder how I would cope in Australia, as regards spiders.) ---
**Author:** ![lynne-42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lynne-42/32/3138_2.png) [@lynne-42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynne-42)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/52 "2015-05-28T12:12:56Z")
**Sangahyando** : There are spiders in British city gardens. I went outside in London and found about 20 fairly quickly. I use a strong torch, even in the daylight. I even included a photo of a House Spider (_Tegenaria sp._) which I took in a courtyard in the mainstream of Oxford in a book I wrote about spiders. They are there but just not making themselves obvious. You’d cope in Australia fine. It is all exaggerated. Just remember that more people die of introduced European bee stings than any of our natives due to allergies. And our spiders haven’t killed anyone for decades. They didn’t manage to kill many people before antivenom anyway. They just have a habit of being large and common. And harmless. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/53 "2015-05-29T19:29:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For me, spiders are no problem at all, but house centipedes give me the heebie-jeebies. Me too! I was raised to believe spiders are nice, because they eat other bugs, and they our friends. Centipedes on the other hand, I do have to run out of the room and stand on top of furniture until they are removed. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/54 "2015-05-29T20:24:36Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#): > > Depends on your definition of what a phobia is. “Phobia” is a fairly well defined term of art in psychology; it is an anxiety disorder characterized by a persistent fear of a thing or situation, which is irrationally disproportionate to the actual danger the thing or situation poses, and which interferes or can interfere in the person’s ability to function normally. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/55 "2015-05-29T23:08:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “Phobia” is a fairly well defined term of art in psychology; it is an anxiety disorder characterized by a persistent fear of a thing or situation, which is irrationally disproportionate to the actual danger the thing or situation poses, and which interferes or can interfere in the person’s ability to function normally. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![HeXen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@HeXen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeXen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542/56 "2015-05-29T23:14:52Z")
Well there is a pretty clear definition so his post is valid despite the context which was out of whack anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-difference-between-arachnophobia-and-common-idiot-fear-of-spiders/720542.md?page=2)