Snakes represent emotionally salient stimuli that may evoke both fear and disgust

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023752%3A_____%2F19%3A43919863" target="_blank" >RIV/00023752:_____/19:43919863 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11210/19:10396723 RIV/00216208:11310/19:10396723

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01085/full" target="_blank" >https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01085/full</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01085" target="_blank" >10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01085</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Snakes represent emotionally salient stimuli that may evoke both fear and disgust

Original language description

Humans perceive snakes as threatening stimuli, resulting in fast emotional and behavioral responses. However, snake species differ in their true level of danger and are highly variable in appearance despite the uniform legless form. Different snakes may evoke fear or disgust in humans, or even both emotions simultaneously. We designed three-step-selection experiments to identify prototypical snake species evoking exclusively fear or disgust. First, two independent groups of respondents evaluated 45 images covering most of the natural variability of snakes and rated responses to either perceived fear (n = 175) or disgust (n = 167). Snakes rated as the most fear-evoking were from the family Viperidae (Crotalinae, Viperinae, and Azemiopinae), while the ones rated as the most disgusting were from the group of blind snakes called Typhlopoidea (Xenotyphlopinae, Typhlopinae, and Anomalepidinae). We then identified the specific traits contributing to the perception of fear (large body size, expressive scales with contrasting patterns, and bright coloration) and disgust (thin body, smooth texture, small eyes, and dull coloration). Second, to create stimuli evoking a discrete emotional response, we developed a picture set consisting of 40 snakes with exclusively fear-eliciting and 40 snakes with disgust-eliciting features. Another set of respondents (n = 172) sorted the set, once according to perceived fear and the second time according to perceived disgust. The results showed that the fear-evoking and disgust-evoking snakes fit mainly into their respective groups. Third, we randomly selected 20 species (10 fear-evoking and 10 disgust-evoking) out of the previous set and had them professionally illustrated. A new set of subjects (n = 104) sorted these snakes and confirmed that the illustrated snakes evoked the same discrete emotions as their photographic counterparts. These illustrations are included in the study and may be freely used as a standardized assessment tool when investigating the role of fear and disgust in human emotional response to snakes.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50103 - Cognitive sciences

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Frontiers in Psychology

ISSN

1664-1078

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

10

Issue of the periodical within the volume

May

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

18

Pages from-to

"Article Number: 1085"

UT code for WoS article

000467455600001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85067413045