The Influential Mind Made Me Think #4: On The Irrationality of Phobias

I could say that during my childhood and all the way into my teens, I thought of most phobias as ridiculous and easy to overcome if the person actually put work in it. Even though my perception of phobias has changed with the years, I do not think I had a good grasp on them until now that I am reading "The Influential Mind" by Tali Sharot. As ridiculous as phobias can get, they are some mechanism for protection and self-preservation. For example, take the list of the 12 most common phobias:

• Arachnophobia: the fear of spiders
• Ophidiophobia: the fear of snakes
• Acrophobia: the fear of heights
• Agoraphobia: the fear of open or crowded spaces
• Cynophobia: the fear of dogs
• Astraphobia: the fear of thunder or lightning
• Claustrophobia: the fear of small spaces and/or enclosed spaces
• Mysophobia: the fear of germs
• Aerophobia: the fear of flying
• Trypophobia: the fear of holes
• Carcinophobia: the fear of cancer
• Thanatophobia: the fear of death

To a certain degree it is completely understandable to be afraid of spiders. We all know that if a venomous spider bites you, your life could be in danger. Nevertheless when we look at the numbers, rationally, the fear of spiders should not be the number one phobia. If phobias are truly meant for protection and self-preservation, the top 12 list would be populated with very different fears, such as fear of diabetes. As Tali Sharot very humorously portrays it:

Imagine a world where fear is rational. In this world, people would scream at the top of their lungs at the mere sight of a cigarette; a heavy-cream phobia and fear of red meat would be commonplace; panic would creep up and down your spine as soon as you entered a moving vehicle. These fears could be justified: smoking, diet and driving are closely related to the five leading causes of death - heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, and strokes.

The why do the phobias mentioned above occupy the top 12 positions? If anything the only ones that rationally belong there would be the fear of germs and cancer! I have two explanations that go hand in hand. First, evolutionary behaviors that we have hardwired in us, and second, the immediacy of the consequences. To build up my first point, let's take as an example agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces). A long time ago, when we still lived in the wild, being in an open space could mean becoming an easy target for a predator. In an open space you would have nowhere to hide, no tree to climb, etc. This fear is less realistic nowadays.

On the other hand, take arachnophobia, I would say the fear is more realistic since we still confront spiders on our daily basis! I believe that the fear of spiders is not based on the probability of dying from confronting one. Let's put it into perspective. In the USA, an average of 6.5 people die each year consequence of a spider bite while 480,000 people die result of cigarette smoking. So why are we afraid of spiders and not cigarettes? I think the immediacy of the consequences plays a big role. When you smoke a cigarette, cancerous cells don't start reproducing immediately. It is a process that takes a long time and happens with a certain probability. Hell, for all I know, you might smoke for the better part of your life, and never get cancer. On the other hand, when a spider bites you, if it is venomous, your life might be in immediate danger. Our brains are programmed to do what it takes to make sure we live another day. On top of that we are not good at calculating the value, pain, or joy of events in the future.

What do you think? I'd like to hear your opinions.

If you want to check out other thoughts that this awesome book has evoked, click on these past posts:

• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #1: Disinformation That The Information Era Has Created
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #2: The Power Of Language And Ideas
• The Influential Mind Made Me Think #3: On The Facebook Scandal, Data Usage, And The Spreading Of Emotions

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