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Fear
By DivineOmega | March 30, 2007
Researchers have found that certain fears (e.g. animals, heights) are much more common than others (e.g. flowers, clouds)… It is possible that those fears associated with increased odds of survival in our ancestors evolved over time by natural selection.
I have a fear of heights, a terrible and often embarrassing fear of heights. Now, fear in the wild is generally a defensive advantage for survival and is usually a response to a particular stimulus. In my case this stimulus is feeling unsteady due to the potential of falling, or even the fear that others I care about may fall.
Now, logically of course, I’m not going to suddenly fall off a bridge. If I were to fall, it would be on the surface of the bridge itself unless I was able to somehow perform a magnificent acrobatic maneuver in the process of falling.
An example of a magnificent acrobatic maneuver in the process of falling
Perhaps my fear was inherited though, and is simply a genetic trait which prevents me from doing a lemming and throwing myself head first off of the nearest large cliff. Just perhaps this is the case.
Alas, no. None of my immediate family have such an extreme fear of heights.
So, is it a learned fear? In the real world, fear may be acquired by a traumatic accident. For example, if a child falls into a well and struggles to get out, he or she may develop a fear of either enclosed spaces (claustrophobia) or of water (aquaphobia).
Again, I am disappointed. My parents nor my friends tortured poor me by dangling my body over active volcano peaks, The Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, The Empire State Building or a random selection of nasty looking stair-cases.
Damn them for not torturing me during my youth… at least then I’d have an answer!