According to the case study, published Oct. In 2014, scientists reported that a man was cured of his arachnophobia after doctors removed a chunk of his brain. Related: New Rx for spider fears? Shout it out The thought is that patients can rewire their brain, and create a "new safe memory that resides in brain alongside the bad memory," opinion columnist Richard A. In exposure therapy, patients with the phobia are exposed to the thing they fear - in this case, spiders - in a safe and controlled setting. Researchers have relied on many methods to help patients conquer their fear of spiders.Įxposure therapy is often lauded as the most successful treatment of the condition. Other reactions to the sight of these animals include wrinkling of the nose (thought to help prevent foul smells and pathogens from entering) and frowning, which could have helped toxic liquids drip from the lips of our ancient ancestors. Phobias can induce a number of physical reactions, including nausea, accelerated heart rate and dilated pupils. All of which suggests that instead of fear, what people may be feeling is disgust.Īn arachnophobe's response to seeing a spider is often visceral. Some blame a tarantula's hairiness, some point to their venom and others blame their skittish movement. Several research articles have shown that there isn't really one thing about spiders that triggers the disgust emotion. So what exactly is it about spiders that inspires such a negative reaction? It all comes down to the "disgust emotion," according to Psychology Today. Related: The greater the fear, the larger the spider "This study revealed how perception of even a basic feature such as size is influenced by emotion, and demonstrates how each of us experiences the world in a unique and different way," Tali Leibovich, study author and scientist at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in New York City said in a statement. The researchers said this suggests people inherently develop fears of such creatures, Live Science previously reported.Ī 2016 study published in the journal Biological Psychology found that arachnophobes also overestimate the size of the spiders they come into contact with. For example, when a team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany showed a group of babies images of spiders, flowers, fish and snakes, the infants' pupils dilated the most when they were shown images of the spiders and snakes.
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