The evolutionary science behind our fear of snakes

Primates and humans may be hard-wired to avoid the reptiles at all cost

Rattlesnake
(Image credit: (Courtesy Shutterstock))

Lots of people are terrified of snakes, despite the fact that most of us simply don't run into too many of the hissy predators anymore. Now everyone from Indiana Jones to Samuel L. Jackson to my mom may have just had their ophidiophobia vindicated by evolutionary science.

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of biologists discovered that a fear of snakes may have evolved as a highly efficient survival mechanism in primates, possibly to help them (and us) avoid pesky and potentially life-ending bouts with the remarkably complex poison found in snake venom.

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Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.