Is There An Evolutionary Advantage To Phobias?

Not really. A phobia is an extreme, disabling fear of something that poses little real danger. The leading idea is that phobias are a byproduct of evolution: our brains are biologically prepared to learn fear of ancestral threats like heights, snakes, and spiders quickly, and in some people that useful fear-learning system overshoots into a phobia.

A phobia is a very peculiar emotion. It’s a crippling feeling, being fearful and anxious at the sight or thought of a seemingly harmless situation or object. The hyperventilation, sweaty palms, locked muscles, and shutting down of the brain can feel paralyzing. It’s a feeling of knowing that you’re probably overreacting to something, but still having no control over it.

A new and widespread form is social phobia, or social anxiety. I am no stranger to this condition, as I am extremely aware of the pains some people take to avoid such situations. Seeing people confidently interacting with others, however, got me thinking… Why do we feel such crippling fears? Why are some people scared of spiders, while others faint at the sight of blood?

Fear And Phobia

After spending hours scrounging through various sources, I kept running into a popular claim: that humans are born with only two instinctive fears, the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. The reality is a little messier. Newborns reliably flinch at sudden, loud sounds (that built-in startle, the Moro reflex, is genuinely present from birth), but the famous “visual cliff” experiments show that babies are not born afraid of heights. Wariness of drop-offs only emerges after several weeks of crawling experience, once infants learn the relationship between their own movement and the edge in front of them. So even our most “primal” fears are partly wired in and partly learned. What about all the other phobias?

First, let’s be clear about fears and phobias. Although often used interchangeably, the two are different things. Fear is the feeling we get when we perceive a threat. It helps us stay wary and alert and is an important tool in our learning processes. Humans have an emotional threat detection mechanism that basically ensures we stay alert in situations that could be a potential threat to us. Therefore, we have induced in ourselves the feeling of fear for such situations or objects, such that we don’t walk into them unaware. A phobia, on the other hand, is an extreme reaction to a seemingly harmless situation or object, or a reaction in anticipation of one. A person with a phobia towards a situation or object will go to great lengths to avoid it, rather than ever face it, unless it is absolutely necessary. However, the line between fear and phobia is quite blurry.

To better understand it, I went back to the roots. Basically, is there an evolutionary advantage to having a phobia?

Evolutionary Aspect Of A Phobia

Being such an ambiguous concept, there are many theories pertaining to the origin and sustenance of a phobia. Since primitive times, man has learned about and adapted to his environment, attempting to develop and cultivate the best possible habits and mechanisms to survive. Today, fighting for our daily bread may be the biggest concern of an individual, but times were different back then. Survival was of the utmost importance, as primitive cavemen lived amongst a plethora of threats, ranging from diseases to wild, hungry animals.

Many common phobias line up neatly with things that posed real threats to our ancestors. Acrophobia, the fear of heights, may have helped keep people away from deadly cliffs, while arachnophobia could trace back to the venomous spiders our ancestors lived alongside. (Strictly speaking, spiders are venomous rather than poisonous: they inject venom through a bite rather than being toxic to eat.) Tellingly, phobias of evolutionarily ancient dangers like spiders, snakes, and heights are far more common than phobias of modern hazards like cars or electrical outlets, even though the modern ones injure far more people today.

However, these threats are not such a major concern right now, which has led to the claim that phobias are just a malfunction of our normal threat-detection mechanism. Most phobias (though not all) can be attributed to some sort of danger that existed in the past. Even though our ancestors learned to stay away from these potential threats long ago, this sense misfires in some people, who develop an extremely strong reaction to it, much like an allergy.

Another theory, however, suggested that phobias should be considered as an adaptation of our stress response, rather than a malfunction. This is because, no matter how small, the central element of a phobia is a threat to us, be it snakes, spiders, heights, or even social embarrassment. Although it may seem redundant most of the time, there will be at least one occasion when a phobia will cause someone to be extra cautious, thus sparing them the eternal trauma of social embarrassment or the pain of a snake bite. A phobia therefore prevents us from getting too close, helping us avoid a situation or object that causes discomfort. Therefore, by natural selection and survival of the fittest, phobias were favored in people to keep them safe.

This thinking is captured in what psychologists call the preparedness theory, first proposed by Martin Seligman in 1971. The idea is not that we are born terrified of spiders and snakes, but that we are biologically prepared to learn that fear faster and hold onto it more stubbornly than a fear of, say, flowers or rabbits. It is worth being careful here, because the popular version of this idea is often overstated. When researchers test babies, infants spot snakes and spiders unusually quickly and their attention locks onto them, yet they show no signs of actual fear (no crying, no avoidance) until they have learned, often from watching others, that the creature is something to dread. In other words, the best current evidence points to an inherited head start in detecting and learning to fear ancient threats, not a fully formed fear stamped in at birth.

Studies have strongly suggested that it is not necessary for a person to acquire a phobia that their parents had, although there is some type of genetic connection. Some people may be more susceptible to developing the same phobia as their parents, as their experience and environment will favor the formation of the phobia. The mind, gradually over the years, promotes these elements as threats, thus leading to phobias. This is why people may be phobic about spiders, but not guns. This is due to the fact that these phobias did not develop in a single lifetime, unless they have been induced by some previous, traumatic exposure.

Some phobias are also affected by age. Babies have certain fears that go away as they grow up. For instance, a child is afraid of their mother leaving the room, and constantly searches for her when she does. However, this goes away once the baby grows up. This is because at an infantile stage, the baby needs its mother to protect it. Once it grows up and can start fending for itself, the fear simply goes away.

There are also some fears or phobias that don’t manifest until a certain age. A good example of this is agoraphobia, which is rarely seen in children. A possible explanation for this could be the fact that certain hormones, and the level of stress that a person experiences, both play a regulatory role in that kind of phobia.

While the theory of phobias being a result of evolution (whether as a malfunction or as an adaptive response) currently seems to be the most satisfying explanation, it still has several loopholes. For instance, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, the fear of long words (ironic, isn’t it?), doesn’t seem to have much of an evolutionary benefit at all.

Recently, having met pilots with acrophobia, I realized that since these phobias have been learned, they can also be unlearned. This task is carried out by trained professionals who can help the brain overcome an outdated fear, or tone down the brain’s response to it. It also shows that our brain has the power to overcome its fears, and further supports the claim that these phobias can be altered, masked or “treated” if they are getting in the way of living a normal life.