• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Ophidiophobia and Arachnophobia

P

Pythonbreeder99

New member
Joined
Oct 25, 2009
Messages
997
Reaction score
36
Points
0
Location
Lafayette, Indiana
Some say that the fear of snakes and spiders is geneticly programed into our bodies because snakes and spiders posed a threat to our ancestors. However, I disagree, I believe that it is the way we are raised that decides what we are and are not afraid of, for example; as a child I was exposed to snakes as a positive thing, I remember my dad catching Garter snakes in the yard and letting me hold them, so when I was 6 he bought me my first Corn snake and my passion took off from there! However, I was negetivly exposed to spiders, I would see my mother jump and scream at spiders and that inbedded in my mind that spiders are bad, to this day I do not like small spiders yet I am fascinated by tarantulas (i guess im weird like that). But let me know your opinion on this subject, I think it would be an interesting conversation!
Cody Mathers
 
Pythonbreeder99 said:
Some say that the fear of snakes and spiders is geneticly programed into our bodies because snakes and spiders posed a threat to our ancestors. However, I disagree, I believe that it is the way we are raised that decides what we are and are not afraid of, for example; as a child I was exposed to snakes as a positive thing, I remember my dad catching Garter snakes in the yard and letting me hold them, so when I was 6 he bought me my first Corn snake and my passion took off from there! However, I was negetivly exposed to spiders, I would see my mother jump and scream at spiders and that inbedded in my mind that spiders are bad, to this day I do not like small spiders yet I am fascinated by tarantulas (i guess im weird like that). But let me know your opinion on this subject, I think it would be an interesting conversation!
Cody Mathers
Click to expand...

I will totally agree with you on this. As a child, my father had a wide collection of snakes,including Corns, Milksnakes, Kingsnakes, Boas, etc. I would find myself going down into his snake room with him, just so that i could see him interact with them when he fed them and cleaned their cages. To me, there wasnt anything at all frightening about them to me, in fact i wanted to hold them.
He encouraged my fascination with them, and the first snake that i ever held was also an Eastern Garter Snake that showed up every summer in the bushes outside my window.
My 8 year old niece is also following in mine and my father's footsteps, in regards to snakes, and reptiles. The first snake she ever held was when she was 4 years old, and it was my Ball Python. I remember sitting with her, while she held him in her lap, and the biggest smile came over her face.
I truly believe that how we perceive snakes and other animals is based on how we were exposed to them, and not a genetic quirk.

BTW, I am also fascinated by Tarantulas, but the small spiders absolutely freak me out:D
 
agree 100% and when it comes to spiders i like them as well, the only thing that creeps me out with spiders is when im walking in the woods looking for stuff and i get a face full of spider web, i just like to know what type of spider i have clinging to my face.
 
Yep, I feel it is more of how you are raised than a natural fear. I've always been interested in them although my parents weren't snake people. In fact both of my parents were on the weary side until I started bringing snakes home on a regular basis. My dad claims his fear was due to the fact he had bad eyesight as a kid and it was easy to pick up a "stick" only later to find out it was indeed a snake. Lol. My mom just got the willies around them. Now they both like snakes though :)

If you're constantly told and shown as a kid that something is scary, evil or bad it is only natural to fear whatever it is. Same goes with the opposite. It is entirely possible for someone to have a genuine phobia of either, but I would say more cases than not it is due to ignorance and the way you're raised and it can be overcome :thumbsup:
 
I once did a research paper / behaviorial experiment in college, and used ophidiophobia as the issue.

The first part of the project was going around with one of my snakes and observing the reaction of people. The second part was interviewing those people and finding out why they reacted the way they did, whether it was positive ("wow...that's coo!, etc") or negative (fear, running away screaming, etc).

Of the demographic who were fearful, the vast majority cited that they were brought up to be scared of snakes. Many had never actually been in close contact to a snake prior to the experiment. All in all, a very interesting study, and of course, it confirms exactly how many of us feel: ophidiophobia (man, what a mouthful!!! to say or to type!) is caused mostly by social conditioning, with religious influence often being an underlying motive.
 
MDC_Ophiuchus said:
I once did a research paper / behaviorial experiment in college, and used ophidiophobia as the issue.

The first part of the project was going around with one of my snakes and observing the reaction of people. The second part was interviewing those people and finding out why they reacted the way they did, whether it was positive ("wow...that's coo!, etc") or negative (fear, running away screaming, etc).

Of the demographic who were fearful, the vast majority cited that they were brought up to be scared of snakes. Many had never actually been in close contact to a snake prior to the experiment. All in all, a very interesting study, and of course, it confirms exactly how many of us feel: ophidiophobia (man, what a mouthful!!! to say or to type!) is caused mostly by social conditioning, with religious influence often being an underlying motive.
Click to expand...

Thats a very good point about religious influence, I've known people who were brought up in very religious families where snakes were never mentioned or discussed. And when they see a snake they see it as a demonic symbol and are instictually afraid.
 
Pythonbreeder99 said:
Thats a very good point about religious influence, I've known people who were brought up in very religious families where snakes were never mentioned or discussed. And when they see a snake they see it as a demonic symbol and are instictually afraid.
Click to expand...

Notice how religion is also one of those things people are "raised" with. I personally feel like that doesn't give the child a choice at all... Same with raising them to hate snakes. No choice. But, that's another topic for another day :reddevil:
 
Abby said:
Notice how religion is also one of those things people are "raised" with. I personally feel like that doesn't give the child a choice at all... Same with raising them to hate snakes. No choice. But, that's another topic for another day :reddevil:
Click to expand...

Well as always I seem to be the odd man out. I was not only raised Catholic but also raised to fear snakes. Both were forced upon me but I obviously don't do well under said conditions, neither seemed to take. :dgrin::dgrin:
 
DAND said:
Well as always I seem to be the odd man out. I was not only raised Catholic but also raised to fear snakes. Both were forced upon me but I obviously don't do well under said conditions, neither seemed to take. :dgrin::dgrin:
Click to expand...

I was also raised Catholic, but i fought it tooth and nail. Did not agree with their beliefs, still don't, because they do not have the right to decide that a marriage is only between a man and a woman. Also, i'm pro-choice,which i believe all women should have the right to decide what's best for them. But like Abby said in her comment, this is an argument left for another time.
 
i get a face full of spider web, i just like to know what type of spider i have clinging to my face.
Click to expand...

ok, that gave me the heebeejeebees!! I'm not going to sleep for a week. Most bugs totally freak me out! I don't know why, I wasn't raised to be afraid of critters and I don't remember being terrified of them as a child, but now, I'd wet my pants and fall over dead if a large bug comes near me. Smaller bugs send me into a freak out.
 
I know this is an old thread but I was talking about this subject today in Psychology class and I figured I'd bump it up to see what some others might have to say
 
My father was/is deathly afraid of snakes, so are ny sisters. My mother was a holier than thou type that thought snakes were the devil. I on the other hand, (my parents say from birth) have always been fascinated by snakes. At the age of 2 I had California kingsnakes stuffed into my onsies, making my father disown me lol

Now I had no issues with spiders until I was about nine. I was bit by a brown recluse and had a chunk of my leg cut out. The chunk looked and smelled like a rotting thumb! About a week after the procedure me, big bro and big cousin we watiching the movie arachnaphobia and I kept feeling things crawling on me, so i would dust the nonexsistant creepys off me! my brother and cousin saw this and locked me in a Trailor closet, probably 2X3 and ran back and forth outside for 3 hours, throwing spiders on me, while I screamed until i had no voice left. Mom was shopping in the big city 1br 30min away so she couldn't save me. I could feel all the.spiders crawling on me and I still do almost 20 years later!

I am terrified of spiders, but love my snakes! I have tried to over come my fear, but nothing works!
 
since i was a little kid ive always been interested in snakes and other reptiles. When i was around 9 i begged and pleaded for an iguana and lo and behold i got one for christmas. Well i didnt know what i was doing and gave the iguana to somebody who could actually take care of it. Fast forward to a little over a year ago i was hanging out at a small exotic pet store in Miami (gunna remain anonymous unless somebody asks me where in a PM) and my friends who were working there kept pestering me about how i should get something and in december i got my first snake, a small cali king named Dante, well i eneded up working there that summer and my collection slowly grew to now 4 snakes, a dumpy frog, and a desert hairy scorpion. How does the family take it u ask? Over thanksgiving my mother talked about how she could kill them with a shovel, grandpa talked about using them for bait, and i was called both a weirdo and a freak for having my collection. I guess it was cool with them when i was just reading about snakes but as soon as they came in the house the "poop" hit the fan.
 
Back
Top