What Evolutionary Psychology Tells Us About Our Fears
Let’s embrace our fears, not run from them.
Human behavior is rampant with subjective bias. An undergraduate degree in psychology propped open the door to my realization that all is not as perceived. Confirmation bias, hindsight bias, the framing effect, and the availability heuristic are just a few of the more common perception misconceptions. As a species we claim to be rational, yearn for it to be true. But, like it or not, we’re creatures of habit — perpetually observing and reorienting our behavior into unconscious routine.
My sophomore year of college I took an Intro to Psychology course — the kind for wandering students unsure about their place in the world — and listened to various faculty members share their academic upbringing and current research topics. Some I found interesting, many dull, but one particular guest completely altered my worldview. Dr. Russell Jackson summarized his doctoral research titled “Evolved navigation theory and the descent illusion”, rattling my brain and launching my affinity for evolutionary psychology.
Evolutionary psychology is the study of human interaction with the environment and the resulting physiological and psychological adaptations.
Example: One of the greatest feats of human evolution was the transition from quadrupedal to bipedal locomotion, as our early ancestors left the trees for the open plains. This freed up our hands to grasp and carry objects, as well as tinker and create tools, simplifying the physical demands of life. The more tools and shortcuts we utilized, the less calories were needed for physical exertion and therefore could be sent elsewhere in the body. Great news for the brain. This could be one factor for the rapid expansion of early human brain size. Another explanation could be the ingestion of psilocybin mushrooms, known to promote neurogenesis.(More on that in a future article)
For all the benefits provided by standing up, one major danger arose — falling. In archaic times, if you fell and sprained an ankle or broke a leg, getting a ride to the doctor wasn’t an option. Luckily, the ever-vigilant Natural Selection recognized this hazard, creating a psychological fail safe. Evolved navigation theory suggests the way human ancestors navigated and perceived their environment is reflected in the way modern humans perceive vertical heights and objects.
To summarize Dr. Jackson’s findings, if you were to peer over the edge of a 100-foot building and estimate its height, you would routinely overestimate by roughly 30%, predicting about 130 feet. We see the same effect for all vertical objects, large and small. The extra 30% is an evolutionary adaptation, tricking our mind to unconsciously account for the possibility of falling.
From down below on ground level we’re fairly accurate at estimating the height of the building. Think about it, there’s no reason to fear falling off a horizontal object. This change in perception is known as the “descent illusion”, embedded into our collective brains that we’re much more likely to fall while descending something than ascending.
The prevalence of falling hasn’t subsided in modern times, either. Aside from motor vehicle accidents, slips, trips and falls remain the number one occupational cause of death. Understanding this evolutionary picture, it’s no surprise that one of the most widespread fears among humans is heights. Our intact limbs should thank the hard-wiring of human race’s past.
This same instinctive influence is why newborns jump at spiders and snakes. These widespread fears seem to be innate, rather than learned. Not all snakes and spiders are poisonous — very few, actually — but it’s certainly not worth finding out. Before the advent of modern medicine and antidotes, a poisonous bite often meant death.
In a time where self-diagnosed phobias and anxieties are the norm, perhaps we can learn something from them. Anxiety, the precursor to fear, is an evolutionary adaptation, alerting us that something in our environment is awry. Becoming aware of our individual anxieties is the first and most crucial step to embracing and curbing their persistence.
