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Animal phobia: fear or disgust?
Peléšková, Šárka ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Animal phobias are among the most common specific phobias. It is traditionally assumed that two basic emotions are involved - fear and anxiety, although recent studies suggest that disgust may also be important. Phobias and involved emotions are defined mostly by psychologists and psychiatrists. Their manifestations could be identified mainly on physiological level and are being researched using advanced medical methods (e.g. functional neuroimaging). The eliciting stimuli of arachnophobia, ophidiophobia etc. are specific animal, spiders or snakes. However the category of elicitors for disgust sensu lato is fairly extended. The etiology of these phenomena is explained from the perspective of evolutionary biology and presumes biologicaly significant selective pressures and common coevolution. The aim of this paper is to summarize information gathered so far, verify proposed evolutionary hypothesis about the involvement of disgust in the etiology of animal phobia and to evaluate biological relevancy of fear of animal stimuli.
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Positive and negative attitudes towards animals
Peléšková, Šárka ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
During the entire course of evolution of our species have animals played an important role in human society and culture. They receive considerably more attention over other stimuli and the interest in animals is accompanied by both positive and negative emotions. This work deals with human attitudes towards three classes of vertebrates - amphibians (Amphibia), mammals (Mammalia), and birds (Aves) - and aims to reveal morphological and other perceptional characteristics of these animals (colour, pattern) that are responsible for their ratings of attractiveness, and of fear and disgust induced, and to investigate the relationship of negative emotions and human aesthetic preferences. The testing, underwent by 536 respondents, revealed the general body shape has the most significant impact on the rating of attractiveness and disgust induced by amphibians. Mammals and birds were significantly influenced by their real body size that was impossible to completely filter out by standardising of the photographs. Colours were of merely marginal influence, saturation contributed to the positive rating, whereas dark and dull colours were rated rather negatively. Particular colours were specific for individual groups. The relations between the examined quantities were not uniform among all the investigated...
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Animal phobia: fear or disgust?
Peléšková, Šárka ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Hocko Fajnerová, Iveta (referee)
Animal phobias are among the most common specific phobias. It is traditionally assumed that two basic emotions are involved - fear and anxiety, although recent studies suggest that disgust may also be important. Phobias and involved emotions are defined mostly by psychologists and psychiatrists. Their manifestations could be identified mainly on physiological level and are being researched using advanced medical methods (e.g. functional neuroimaging). The eliciting stimuli of arachnophobia, ophidiophobia etc. are specific animal, spiders or snakes. However the category of elicitors for disgust sensu lato is fairly extended. The etiology of these phenomena is explained from the perspective of evolutionary biology and presumes biologicaly significant selective pressures and common coevolution. The aim of this paper is to summarize information gathered so far, verify proposed evolutionary hypothesis about the involvement of disgust in the etiology of animal phobia and to evaluate biological relevancy of fear of animal stimuli.
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