The fear of snakes, or ophidiophobia, is a common phobia that is learned through cultural beliefs and lack of knowledge. Humans are predisposed to be more alert to snakes, but not inherently afraid of them. Treatment involves slowly desensitizing people in controlled environments.
Fear of snakes, also known as ophidiophobia, is a very common form of phobia. Depending on which source you rely on, the fear of snakes is somewhere between the first and fifth most common phobias in the general population, along with phobias such as fear of spiders and fear of heights. This phobia is a subset of herpetophobia, the fear of reptiles; if someone fears reptiles in general, not just snakes, that person is technically experiencing herpetophobia, not ophidiophobia.
The reasons the fear of snakes is so widespread are complicated. Research by scientists interested in psychology and evolution seems to suggest that humans are predisposed to be more alert to snakes, possibly because of the dangers they pose. People are more likely to notice snakes and be aware of their movements, but aren’t actually inherently afraid of them. Like other phobias, a fear of snakes is learned.
People can learn to be afraid of snakes because they don’t know much about them, by reading about scary snakes, seeing snakes used in pranks to scare people, and through cultural beliefs about snakes. Many societies reinforce the fear of snakes with religious beliefs and superstitions, making people nervous around snakes and contributing to the development of a fear of snakes. Other cultures, however, venerate snakes and it is noteworthy that their populations tend to demonstrate less ophidiophobia, demonstrating that fear is learned rather than innate.
For someone who has a fear of snakes, being around snakes, hearing conversations about snakes, or seeing representations of snakes in pictures and videos can be very stressful. Panic symptoms such as cold sweat, rapid heartbeat, nausea, dizziness, and confusion may develop. People can go to great lengths to avoid environments where snakes might be present or where people might talk about them. Treating snake phobia involves slowly desensitizing people in controlled environments.
Teasing a phobia can make it harder for someone to recover from it, as can trying to force people to move into treating a phobia more quickly than they are comfortable with. If someone is being treated for a fear of snakes, surprising the person with things related to snakes can slow down the person’s therapy and potentially make the phobia worse. Friends and family can be supportive by respecting the boundaries of the person being treated and asking if there is anything they can do to help.
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