Why Are We Afraid Of Spiders?

I like the explanations given here:

There was also an effect from family. Those people fearful of spiders reported having a family member with similar fears, but the study was unable to separate genetic factors from environmental ones. What is surprising is that Davey found that archanophobia wasn’t the result of specific “spider trauma”, which means there was no support for the conditioning view.

So what makes spiders so terrifying? Surely it must be the threat of being bitten? Davey looked at that issue too. It turns out that it is not so much a fear of being bitten, but rather the seemingly erratic movements of spiders, and their “legginess”. Davey said.

Myself, I like the idea that the small, complicated shapes of spiders trigger fears of unanticipated attacks. Interestingly, that means the largest spiders are the most approachable, because they are more intelligent, move more slowly, and you can see them better. I really enjoyed meeting Breaking Bad's tarantula wrangler Christopher Lim because his spiders are shy, tentative around strangers, and lovable.