Fear is a learned social behavior that at its most primal level can arise in one of two ways. It can come about either through improper first exposure to an object, animal or experience or as a learned behavior from witnessing a fear response in another. These two categories are respectively, conditioned fear learning and observational fear learning. Both types of fear can be at play in developing a fear response such as cynophobia. Cynophobia is the irrational fear of dogs and it affects 1 in 20 people. It can be a debilitating fear preventing people from going places such as airports, parks, or anywhere they are likely to come across dogs. The irrational fear of dogs can disrupt a person’s life in unimaginable ways.
The amygdala is a structure within the brain responsible for emotions like the fear response. It is one of the oldests structures, evolutionarily speaking, which means it remains relatively unchanged between species (1). Hyperactivity of the amygdala is present in people with phobias and shows heightened arousal to stimulus (2).
The most basic form of fear learning is conditioned fear. This means that person learned to fear something because they had a direct negative experience. This type of fear was first studied by Pavlov who used animal models to create a fear response where there was previously none. He applied a benign stimulus, such as a sound, and then followed it up with a naturally aversive stimulus such as a shock to the foot. Soon the animal exhibited fear upon hearing the sound (3). This is seen in people who once had a bad experience with a dog. It most often occurs in childhood but can rarely come about in adulthood.
What is more interesting is that a fear response can be created in an animal who is not experiencing a negative stimulus but only witnessing a fear response in another. This is observational fear and it is a powerful evolutionary tool when applied to the correct situations. For example when a group of mice witnessed another group who were exposed to pavlovian fear conditioning, the observational group also exhibited fear when presented with the sound that signalled an imminent negative stimulus (1). This is fear learning on a societal level and it allows for greater survivability of a species. However, this can be very detrimental to children who witness another person’s phobia.
“Children with subclinical animal phobias or extreme fears toward certain situations, such as darkness, often report having observed parents fearful in the same or similar situations” (1).
This can result in the development of cynophobia. A child’s ability to respond appropriately to fear is vital for survival but when applied to the wrong stimulus can impair their ability to function in society. They may stop going to certain parks or playgrounds to avoid dogs. There will be situations they are unable to feel comfortable in for the entirety of their life. This is not fair to them and it is not fair to dogs. Encouraging this fear leads to breeds being banned which causes and increase in the rate of these breeds being abandoned and euthanized. Pit bulls are currently the breed most feared in the United States. They are also the most common breed in shelters and are euthanized at a rate of 2,800 per day. Before pit bulls the most feared breed was doberman pinschers and before them it was bloodhounds. Public perception changes with time and the blame is often laid at the feet of the breed not the owner. In ancient China, perkenese were used for attack dogs and now are considered to be in the lap dog category.
Fear varies between people and across societies. It is dependent on a person’s individual biology, their personal experiences, and the experiences of those around them. No response is necessarily a wrong one but it is important to know what plays into learning what to or what not to fear.
References:
Olsson A, Phelps EA. Social learning of fear. Nature Neuroscience. 2007;10(9):1095–102.
Larson CL, Schaefer HS, Siegle GJ, Jackson CA, Anderle MJ, Davidson RJ. Fear Is Fast in Phobic Individuals: Amygdala Activation in Response to Fear-Relevant Stimuli. Biological Psychiatry. 2006;60(4):410–7.
LeDoux J. The Emotional Brain, Fear, and the Amygdala. Cellular and Molecular Neurology . 2003 Oct;23(4).