Animals evoking fear in the Cradle of Humankind: snakes, scorpions, and large carnivores.

ABSTRACT: Theories explain the presence of fears and specific phobias elicited by animals in contemporary WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) populations by their evolutionary past in Africa. Nevertheless, empirical data about fears of animals in the Cradle of Humankind are still fragmentary. To fill this gap, we examined which local animals are perceived as the most frightening by Somali people, who inhabit a markedly similar environment and the region where humans have evolved. We asked 236 raters to rank 42 stimuli according to their elicited fear. The stimuli were standardized pictures of species representing the local fauna. The results showed that the most frightening animals were snakes, scorpions, the centipede, and large carnivores (cheetahs and hyenas). These we

SUBMITTER: Frynta D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10322782 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature