Attentional, emotional, and behavioral response toward spiders, scorpions, crabs, and snakes provides no evidence for generalized fear between spiders and scorpions

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023752%3A_____%2F23%3A43921236" target="_blank" >RIV/00023752:_____/23:43921236 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11310/23:10477651

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-48229-8" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-48229-8</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48229-8" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41598-023-48229-8</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Attentional, emotional, and behavioral response toward spiders, scorpions, crabs, and snakes provides no evidence for generalized fear between spiders and scorpions

Original language description

Spiders are among the animals evoking the highest fear and disgust and such a complex response might have been formed throughout human evolution. Ironically, most spiders do not present a serious threat, so the evolutionary explanation remains questionable. We suggest that other chelicerates, such as scorpions, have been potentially important in the formation and fixation of the spider-like category. In this eye-tracking study, we focused on the attentional, behavioral, and emotional response to images of spiders, scorpions, snakes, and crabs used as task-irrelevant distractors. Results show that spider-fearful subjects were selectively distracted by images of spiders and crabs. Interestingly, these stimuli were not rated as eliciting high fear contrary to the other animals. We hypothesize that spider-fearful participants might have mistaken crabs for spiders based on their shared physical characteristics. In contrast, subjects with no fear of spiders were the most distracted by snakes and scorpions which supports the view that scorpions as well as snakes are prioritized evolutionary relevant stimuli. We also found that the reaction time increased systematically with increasing subjective fear of spiders only when using spiders (and crabs to some extent) but not snakes and scorpions as distractors. The maximal pupil response covered not only the attentional and cognitive response but was also tightly correlated with the fear ratings of the picture stimuli. However, participants’ fear of spiders did not affect individual reactions to scorpions measured by the maximal pupil response. We conclude that scorpions are evolutionary fear-relevant stimuli, however, the generalization between scorpions and spiders was not supported in spider-fearful participants. This result might be important for a better understanding of the evolution of spider phobia.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

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

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10700 - Other natural sciences

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-07164S" target="_blank" >GA19-07164S: Aversive response to spiders and the underlying emotions</a><br>

Continuities

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

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

Scientific Reports

ISSN

2045-2322

e-ISSN

2045-2322

Volume of the periodical

13

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

"Article number 20972"

UT code for WoS article

001124104100045

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85178063924