Talk:Arachnophobia

Wikipedia Ambassador Program assignment

This article is the subject of an educational assignment at St. Charles Community College supported by WikiProject Psychology and the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2011 Q3 term. Further details are available on the course page.

Above message substituted from {{WAP assignment}} on 14:42, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

Look a little closer...

HEY, IF YOU HAVE AN EXTREME FEAR OF SPIDERS, PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SOME RATHER FEARSOME DESCRIPTIONS OF THEM UP CLOSE

This article doesn’t describe what many people I know (and myself, to an extent, I have a mild fear of spiders, but I have a fascination with them that outweighs my fear) find scariest about spiders. Namely, close up looks at them. Most typically their faces are often described as highly fearsome. Their multiple scattered bulging black eyes and large fangs are a huge source of revulsion, probably more so for people I’d say than any physical feature mentioned in this article such as legs, and without doubt INFINITELY more so than any of the more logical justifications given he re such as venom would be in a country where these do not apply. This article mainly talks about why people may or may not be scared of the beasts themselves, if there may be evolutionary reasons relating to highly venomous arachnids in the areas in which humanity first emerged, or societal factors, where the idea spiders are scary becomes effectively a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, this does not explain the visceral reaction many people have to specifically close-up pictures (or sufficiently large examples, but that may be slightly more rational) of the things. --StrexcorpEmployee (talk) 13:09, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

spiders

The fear of Spiders and cob webs is called Aranophobia Arachnophobia is the fear of all Arachnids ie: scorpions,ants mites etc

Ants are not Arachnids. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:39, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

No consensus for using real spider

The anon needs to discuss. Acidsetback (talk) 20:25, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

A known troll (they changed the words the article Peda to "pedo") added the image. While I do think it's less hokey than the picture of a cartoon spider, anyone researching arachnophobia knows what a spider looks like. There's little reason to include such a picture in the lead and adds little to the educational value of the article. At least the picture of the cartoon spider shows someone being scared by a spider -- this picture does not. Because consensus was not made in the previous discussion about the picture, but the anonymous user changed it anyway, I'll change the picture back. Although, I will acknowledge that the user was bold and seemed to act in good faith here, as the old discussion on the picture was several years old. --IronMaidenRocks (talk) 14:59, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

You said a known troll did it, but then you said they acted in good faith. Which is it? Are you talking about two different users? Acidsetback (talk) 21:57, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

I think the cartoon photo is a bit silly for the page, but you're right that it at least shows fear of spiders. I objected to the real spider photo because the anon was forcing it in against objections and appeared to be trolling sufferers. Acidsetback (talk) 22:40, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Clarification on "Causes"

The "Causes" section focuses primarily on why arachnophobia is a particularly common phobia, rather than on the reasons that it manifests in specific individuals, which is a break from similar articles. I think it would be a good idea to establish, prior to the "causes" section, that arachnophobia is particularly common compared to other phobias, since this is something that the reader may not be aware of before reading this. Amatmilen (talk) 21:16, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Hi Amatmilen, do you have a suggestion for what the addition should say, and reliable sources that we can cite for said addition? - Adolphus79 (talk) 23:58, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Hi Adolphus79. I found the current sources sufficient to introduce the issue of prevalence in the lead. I also reordered some of the information under the "Causes" (now "Reason for Prevalence") section in a way I felt was less jarring, and removed a reference to the WebMD definition of phobia near the end of the first paragraph of the evolution section that seemed to me to be an argument in the form of OR. Amatmilen (talk) 01:05, 9 May 2026 (UTC)