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Aposematic colouration does not explain fear of snakes in humans

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Abstract

Snakes elicit a higher level of fear than other vertebrate animals, yet specific cues responsible for fear of snakes are equivocal. The bright colouration hypothesis suggests that fear responses to snakes are triggered by aposematic colouration, not by snakes per se. We investigated the role of aposematic colouration in fear of snakes in a sample of 10- to 15-year-old Slovak children. Both aposematically and cryptically coloured snakes presented as both colour and black-and-white pictures received higher perceived fear scores than other vertebrates. This suggests that aposematic colouration does not play a crucial role in eliciting fear of snakes. Our results support the snake detection theory suggesting that the human visual system has been influenced by long coexistence between predatory snakes and mammals. As a result, humans have evolved an attentional bias ultimately focused on the correct and rapid detection of these threats.

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Acknowledgements

Two anonymous referees gave insightful comments on an earlier draft. David Livingstone improved the English of the manuscript. This research was supported by university grants no. 2/TU/2017 and 5/TU/2017 and KEGA no. 001PU-4/2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, Trnava University, Priemyselná 4, 918 43, Trnava, Slovakia

    Pavol Prokop & Jana Fančovičová

  2. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 06, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Pavol Prokop

  3. Primary School Radošovce, Radošovce no. 338, 908 63, Skalica, Slovakia

    Agnesa Kučerová

Authors
  1. Pavol Prokop
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  2. Jana Fančovičová
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  3. Agnesa Kučerová
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Correspondence to Pavol Prokop.

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Written parental consent was received before the research was carried out. All procedures performed in the studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committees and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Prokop, P., Fančovičová, J. & Kučerová, A. Aposematic colouration does not explain fear of snakes in humans. J Ethol 36, 35–41 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-017-0533-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-017-0533-9

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