研究:嬰兒本不怕蛇 恐懼乃外界薰陶

If you're terrified of spiders, or fearful of snakes, then blame your parents. A study challenges the widely held view that we are hard-wired to fear creepy crawlies and instead suggests we learn to be scared of them in the first years of life. Fear of snakes is one of the most common - and in Britain - irrational phobias. Half the population is thought to suffer even though most have never actually seen a snake. Experts at Rutgers University in Newark showed seven-month-old babies two videos side by side – one of a snake and another of a non-threatening animal. At the same time, the babies were played a recording of either a fearful human voice or a happy infants spent more time looking at the snake videos when listening to the fearful voices, but showed no signs of fear themselves, the researchers report in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science.
　　如果你見到蜘蛛就尖叫，想起蛇就渾身發抖，那麼千萬別責怪自己那麼膽小，或者天生就是一膽小鬼。絕對不是。其實是爸爸媽媽教會你“如何害怕”的。有調查稱，“害怕蛇”是絕大多數英國人的“通病”，英國人把自己害怕蛇歸結爲“天性使然”，有半數英國國民光是想到蛇都不寒而慄，更別說是看見蛇了。據悉，一項新研究調查徹底顛覆了人們的固有觀念，即-----人們對蛇和蜘蛛的恐懼時與生俱來的，其實不然，人們是在出生後幾年逐漸學會害怕它們的。美國新澤西州的研究者做了一項實驗，在7個月大的嬰兒面前並排播放兩段視頻，一個關於蛇，另一個關於某種無害動物。結果嬰兒花更多的時間觀看蛇，甚至把自己的耳朵湊過去“傾聽”蛇發出的滋滋聲，但沒有表現出任何恐懼的反應。這項研究調查被髮布在《心理科學最新動向》期刊上，證明，初生牛犢其實不怕蛇！

Past studies have shown that people can be taught to fear almost anything. In one Swedish study, scientists showed volunteers images of snakes, spiders, flowers and mushrooms while giving them a small electric shock. Unsurprisingly, the volunteers learnt to associate all the images with fear. In Britain half of women and a fifth of men are thought to be frightened of spiders, irrespective of whether they are dangerous or not.

Many scientists argue that the phobias, exploited by Hollywood movies such as Arachnophobia and Snakes on a Plane, evolved millions of years ago when our ancestors lived alongside a host of deadly reptiles and insects in Africa.

過去的研究一致認爲，人們內心產生的恐懼心理都是受到外界影響而形成的。在一項來自瑞典調查顯示，當科學家在志願者面前分別擺放：蛇、蜘蛛、花卉以及蘑菇照片等，同時用儀器給志願者外界的電流衝擊，結果志願者對於所有的照片都產生恐懼、害怕心理，志願者“被迫”把所有照片與恐懼聯繫起來。因爲在英國，有半數女人以及20%的男人都害怕蜘蛛，不管他們是否覺得蜘蛛危險與否，他們似乎天生就害怕那種活物。有科學家譴責人們的這種毫無來由的恐懼心理部分歸結於好萊塢的驚悚電影，比如《小魔煞》，這部電影講的是一隻來自叢林的特種蜘蛛來到小鎮繁衍後代，最終釀成災難的故事。科學家認爲這些人爲製造的恐怖場景讓人們即使不害怕蜘蛛，也變得害怕了。