Why Are Some Snakes More Terrifying and What Is Behind the Fear?
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F25%3A10496688" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/25:10496688 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=.43Jp4lbI5" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=.43Jp4lbI5</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani15050731" target="_blank" >10.3390/ani15050731</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Why Are Some Snakes More Terrifying and What Is Behind the Fear?
Original language description
Snakes are stimuli inducing an ancestral fear response in humans and other primates. Certain snakes evoke more subjective fear than others. True vipers are high-fear-eliciting snakes for both African and European respondents. This can be explained by the evolutionary experience of human ancestors in Africa. The question arises as to how snakes living in the Americas and Australia, with which humans have no evolutionary experience, will be evaluated. While these snakes belong to broader taxonomic groups that have distant relatives in the Old World, they have evolved independently for tens of millions of years. We prepared a set of 32 pictures depicting eight American pit vipers, eight Australian elapids, eight constrictors, and eight colubrids and asked the respondents to rank these stimuli according to the fear these snakes evoke. Here, we show a high cross-cultural agreement between evaluations by African and European respondents. Snakes characterized by a robust body shape, such as American pit vipers, Australian death adders, pythons, and boas, were the most fear-evoking. The body width was the strongest predictor of evoked fear. The contribution of coloration and pattern of the stimulus to the fear response was not proved. This supports the view that the patterns of fear are not dependent on direct experience, but its underlying mechanisms are shared cross-culturally.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
40100 - Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries
Result continuities
Project
<a href="/en/project/GA20-21608S" target="_blank" >GA20-21608S: A cross-cultural study of response to snakes in the cradle of humankind: Is fear evolutionarily conserved?</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Animals
ISSN
2076-2615
e-ISSN
2076-2615
Volume of the periodical
15
Issue of the periodical within the volume
5
Country of publishing house
CH - SWITZERLAND
Number of pages
21
Pages from-to
731
UT code for WoS article
001442374600001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-86000610434