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September 25, 2009

Snakes, Spiders, and the Science of Gender

Why do women tend to be more afraid of creepy crawlies than men?

Elrena Evans

My toddler son is taking a class this fall about bugs. "Learn about insects and their important role in our environment and everyday lives through stories, crafts and games," the brochure boasts. "Great class for boys and girls!"

As long as I don't have to be one of those girls, I'm fine. I plan to spend the class time hanging out with my 6-month-old, as far away from the bugs as is legally allowed. While my son hears stories about spiders and makes crickets out of pipe cleaners and black plastic combs, I'll be doing something else — anything else. And while he and his classmates are tromping outdoors with boxes of live insects, I'll be practicing that Lamaze breathing that does nothing for labor pains — but perhaps does something for bug phobias.

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According to a recent Boston Globe article, women are four times more likely than men to be afraid of bugs, spiders, snakes, and the like. Yet no discernible gender difference exists for specifically modern phobias (the article mentions needle injections and flying). Why is this?

To find out, David Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University conducted an experiment with 11-month-old infants. He showed them a series of pictures — a snake, a spider, a flower, and a mushroom — paired with either a happy face or a frightened face. Baby girls quickly associated the snake and the spider with the frightened face, reports Science News. Baby boys did not.

Rakison believes the discrepancy may be evolutionary in nature. In prehistoric times, he theorizes, snakes and spiders posed a greater threat to women than to men, in terms of the survival of the species, because children could not survive without their mothers. Thus, the female brain has evolved in such a way as to recognize this danger from an early age.

Debates about evolution aside (although feel free to take it up in the comments section!), I could probably come up with an alternative explanation for why girls are more afraid of snakes, at least, and it would probably run something like this: Snake tempts girl. Girl succumbs. Sedition, eviction, perdition.

Any takers?

Vanessa LoBue of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville also draws a different conclusion from Rakison's study. Infant girls associating fearful faces with snakes and spiders may have less to do with phobic gender disparity, LoBue says, and more with the possibility that girls can understand human facial expressions at a younger age. Perhaps both boys and girls are equally primed to fear snakes and spiders, but girls' advanced facial decoding gives them an advantage in Rakison's experiment.

In an essay in my anthology Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood and Academic Life, three mothers with biology PhDs write about how their scientific backgrounds and love of the natural world have allowed them to "instill a far different threshold for squeamishness about biological critters" in their respective children, including a daughter who loves bugs so much that she tries to inculcate this bug-love in her own friends. This essay inspired me. The argument for nurture over — or perhaps with — nature made me think I might be able to raise my daughter free of the bug paranoias that plague her mother.

And I've tried. "Oh, look at that cool bug!" I've crowed, while clenching my hands into fists behind my back and silently chanting the Jesus Prayer. It seems to be working, at least to some degree; my daughter doesn't scream when she sees a bug, and compassionately ensures there is food for the ants that find their way in through the cracks in our house.

There may be hope for her, but I'm not so sure about myself. The other night I opened the front door to see two black, creepy bugs hopping/jumping/otherwise hurling themselves at me, and I promptly slammed the door and burst into tears. My daughter wasn't there to witness this, but my son was.

Later, I saw him looking at me with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I'm not like you, Mama," he finally said. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Like you and bugs," he continued after a minute. "I just don't get nervous. Like you do."

He's right. I can try to model pro-bug behavior, but at the end of the day, the frightened face is inextricably linked with the snake and the spider for me.

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Posted by Katelyn Beaty on September 25, 2009 9:07 AM

Comments

My 3-year-old daughter finds bugs fascinating. I started pointing them out to her when she started to walk and now she is the one who says, "Mommy! Come look at this spider!" Which I think is really neat.

I'm generally skeptical of what seems like pseudo-science that makes claims about what boys and girls "naturally" prefer. Why can't we just let our children be individuals without saddling them with gender-specific expectations regarding their interests and strengths?

Posted By: Robyn | September 25, 2009 10:15 AM

Hmm, for me it depends on the setting. None of those things frighten me per se - I find bugs and spiders fascinating to look at in the context of a garden, or a forest, or a zoo or a classroom. Though some of them (centipedes for example) will always gross me out. But for the most part bugs only really bother me in my house or on my physical person - and even then, only the scarier, ickier bugs.

But snakes, they don't scare me one bit. In fact, I aim to have one for a pet one of these days. It is my husband who doesn't care for the idea. Snakes give him the creeps.

I don't know if it's nature or nurture, or an inextricable combo - but i like what Robyn said about just allowing kids to be themselves without forcing gender-related expectations upon them.

Posted By: Amy @ A Chase After Wind | September 25, 2009 11:07 AM

So interesting! And yet, in this household of 3 males and one female, only the males are creepy-crawly averse.

Posted By: Caroline | September 25, 2009 10:58 PM

Most traits like this come on a curve. It may be true that the average male is less scared of bugs and such than the average female, but that does not mean that this fits every male and female. There is more variety within each gender. Also, traits such as these are most likely the cause of socialization rather than anything innate to the gender.

Posted By: Anna | September 26, 2009 12:20 AM

I think it is a combination of nature and nurture, but a mother can help both girls and boys in this arena. When my son (now 18) was year in kindergarten, his friend Sam was over and we were in our very natural backyard complete with a creek and woods and creepy crawlies. When we walked up the trail, my son’s friend was totally freaked out by every spider and creepy crawly in our yard.
When his mom came to pick him up, she wanted to see our yard, so I gave her the tour. When we brushed against a spider, she completely went crazy and I noted that I saw that her son was not a big spider fan either. She quickly agreed, “Oh, Sam hates spiders or any outdoor bug.”
It made me think about my reaction to bugs and such, and I realize that I can affect my children’s reactions. One time a few weeks after my son’s friend was over, I caught myself over-reacting to a bug of some sort -- I screamed out a bit in front of my son. The next day, my son reacted the same way I did. Ouch. After that, I worked on being careful as to how I reacted around other creepy crawlies. Especially slugs. I do not like slugs. And in Oregon, you get a lot of slugs.
Regarding girls and bugs, I think generally there is a certain tendency which is built into each person, but you can surely help a young girl not be freaked out about natural things in nature. I tried to raise our daughter, who is now 19, to enjoy the outdoors and not freak out over bugs. She now loves camping and being outside.
Sometimes, certain reactions are also just a faze. With our 6 year old son, he just does not like spiders while our other boys are intrigued by them. I do not force spiders on my son, and try to down play this reaction. I will add that all of our boys like snakes and our daughter --- and myself – can do without those, thank you very much.

Cornelia Seigneur
West Linn Oregon

Posted By: Cornelia Seigneur | September 26, 2009 4:18 PM

I wonder whether some girls are simply more vocal about their fear of bugs because it's more socially acceptable for them to have this fear. Boys are sort of *supposed* to like bugs, spiders, etc. In my family, my husband, sons and I are indifferent, but my daughter absolutely hates spiders, etc.

Posted By: Bonnie | September 26, 2009 6:11 PM

I could care less about bugs unless they're poisonous and an inch from my face. Snakes, on the other hand give me screaming terrors. My loving husband and friends made me touch a boa at an aquarium once. I woke up screaming a week later, having dreamed of snakes. I'm surprised the nightmare held out that long. And no, I don't think it's a coincidence that my mother has a giant snake phobia and I do too.
On the other hand, I know plenty of guys who are absolutely terrified of spiders. One is about to marry a girl who is also afraid of spiders. It'll be interesting to see who has to gird up their loins and escort the bugs outside.

Posted By: Loris | September 28, 2009 2:14 PM

I know it was tongue and cheek - but I'll take your thoughts!

I still laugh when I remember an old 80's movie where the hero makes a joke when the woman sees snakes about how it all started with Eve.

I can handle spiders and other creepies - but snakes? No way!

Posted By: Allie | September 28, 2009 4:40 PM

The best thing that ever happened to my girls, now 7 and 9: growing up with their day care provider's son (now 14). Just like having a big brother who taught them to hunt roly polys, dig worms ... the whole bug nine yards.

I almost fainted when they brought me a great big katydid a couple of weeks ago ... they couldn't wait to show me the parts it used to make its noises. I sucked it up and paid attention and they congratulated me for overcoming my fear ...

Posted By: Kathleen | September 29, 2009 9:39 AM

I would have to cast my vote for "Nurture" as opposed to "Nature".
Many was the time us big, brave, heavily armed guys were scattered by a "Creepy Crawly" critter in Viet Nam. As often as not a diminuitive Viet Namese woman would quickly dispatch it, laughing uncontrolably at our discomfort.
The ladies were quite familiar with living with such creatures. Us big boys had not grown up playing with such nasty things. It was entirely their Nurture that kept them calm. It was entirely our lack thereof, that made us panic and scream, like a bunch of "little girls".

Posted By: Nethinim | September 29, 2009 10:41 AM

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