Fear in infancy: Lessons from snakes, spiders, heights, and strangers

Abstract

This review challenges the traditional interpretation of infants' and young children's responses to three types of potentially "fear-inducing" stimuli-snakes and spiders, heights, and strangers. The traditional account is that these stimuli are the objects of infants' earliest developing fears. We present evidence against the traditional account, and provide an alternative explanation of infants' behaviors toward each stimulus. Specifically, we propose that behaviors typically interpreted as "fearful" really reflect an array of stimulus-specific responses that are highly dependent on context, learning, and the perceptual features of the stimuli. We speculate about why researchers so commonly misinterpret these behaviors, and conclude with future directions for studying the development of fear in infants and young children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Figures

Figure 1.

Depictions of snakes and spiders in art and media. Left, Adam and Eve, 1526, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lucas_Cranach_d._%C3%84._001.jpg. In the public domain. Right, Medusa, 1597, by Caravaggio. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Medusa_by_Caravaggio.jpg. In the public domain. See the online article for the color version of this figure.

Figure 2.

Preschooler detecting a flower target among snake distracters in a 3 × 3 matrix from LoBue & DeLoache (2008). Adapted from “Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children,” by V. LoBue & J. S. DeLoache, Psychological Science, 19, p. 285. Copyright, 2008 by Sage. Adapted with permission. See the online article for the color version of this figure.

Figure 3.

Apparatuses used to test infants’ reactions to heights. (A) Standard visual cliff. The entire apparatus is covered in safety glass so the drop-off is only illusory. On the “deep” side, the checkerboard-patterned floor surface on the deep side is 102 cm below the centerboard; and the surface on the “shallow” side, it is 3 cm below the centerboard. (B) Actual cliff. Height of the drop-off adjusts from 0 to 90 cm in 1-cm increments. (C) Adjustable slope apparatus. Steepness slant adjusts from 0° to 90° in 2° increments. (D) Bridge apparatus. Bridge width adjusts from 2 to 60 cm in 2-cm increments. (E) Adjustable opening ledge apparatus. In the falling condition, infants walked along a ledge between a moving wall and a precipice. Ledge width adjusts from 0 to 70 cm in 1-cm increments. (F) Adjustable gap apparatus. Gap width adjusts from 0 to 90 cm in 2-cm increments.