Fear of Snakes

Nobuyuki KawaiProfessor of Department of Cognitive and Psychological SciencesNagoya UniversityNagoya, Japan

• Historical transition of psychological theories of fear: The view of fear in Behaviorism.- Are snakes special in human fear learning and cognition?: The preparedness theory of phobia and the fear module theory.- The Underlying Neuronal Circuits of Fear Learning and the Snake Detection Theory (SDT).- Ontogeny and phylogeny of snake fear.- Do snakes draw attention more strongly than spiders or other animals?.- Other types of studies showing that snakes hold special status in threat perception.- Searching for the critical features of snakes.- Issues that remain unanswered.