When you think about it, people’s intense phobias are pretty arbitrary and exaggerated considering the real threats in the modern world. Indeed, such phobias are primal, as we shall see. The late evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson can help us understand where exactly these fears come from, such as fear of spiders, snakes, and claustrophobia. 

From his book, The Meaning of Human Existence (2014), the Pulitzer-prize winning biologist explains how a fear of creatures rather than the threats of the modern world are hard-wired into our brains from pre-history: 

“The clue is in the objects of the phobias themselves, which comprise mostly spiders, snakes, wolves, running water, closed spaces, and crowds of strangers. These were among the ancient perils of the pre-human and early human hunter gatherers across millions of years. Our early ancestors regularly faced injury or death while hunting to close to the edge of a ravine, or when they stepped carelessly on a venomous snake, or stumbled upon a raiding party of an enemy tribe. It was safest to learn fast…” 

What we learned is to fear these perils out of instinct and emotion rather than making a rational decision about what the true dangers are or were. Because historically, as Wilson explains, these were the real threats. But not so much in 2024. You aren’t likely to die by being bit by a spider or a snake when you’re an urban dwelling office worker. Yet that fear still lies deep within your brain.

If we used our rational brain instead of instinct, we would be afraid of cholesterol and car accidents. We might have a cautious attitude towards are diet, but it’s nothing like the visceral dread of a big spider. This is because cholesterol was about the last problem for our hunter-gatherer ancestors. 

And so our fear of these things persist as a kind of evolutionary memory.  If you dream of snakes or insects attacking you, that’s an echo of your ancestors and an historical record of their anxieties.  

Works Cited 

Wilson, Edward O. The Meaning of Human Existence. Narrated by Jonathan Hogan. NY: Recorded Books, 2014. 

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