| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 07/10/2012 : 13:32:12
So Sunday yet again, bored yet again, another little project - yet again.
This time I took to the internet on various social sites and asked completely random people a simple question "Are you afraid of (or do you dislie) snakes?"
Well that yielded some strange results!
Firstly let's look at the outcome frmo asking 100 people;
Scared / Dislike : 35%
Not Scared : 65%
That's not too bad, but it could be better, if 35% of people dislike snakes we've got quite a battle ahead trying to persuade them otherwise.
From that 35% we have some interesting answers as to why they dislike or are scared of snakes;
30% Because of Poison (or venom)
20% Because of the way they look
10% They can constrict you
10% They bite
6.6% They are aggressive
6.6% The way they move
3.3% Dangerous (Did not specify why)
3.3% Because "I'm a girl" (Yeah I didn't quite get this one either)
3.3% They hiss
3.3% They are fast
3.3% They are evil
I'm glad that most of the rediculous things are a small percentage but the top one "Poison/Venom" while it's a good thing to be afraid of it shouldn't make you dislike snakes.
My questions were posed to completely random people from completely different parts of the world and one of the strange things I noticed was that people who live in countries with dangerous snakes had the most passionate arguments for AND again.
It seemed I saw the argument "Because I live in Australia" for both sides of it a few times, Either because they have a lot of snakes so they're used to them, or because they have some particularly dangerous snakes so they are scared of them.
One of the most disturbing things I discovered was some peoples straight up hatred for them, with no real reason they could pick. I normally understand fears and phobia's I have many myself and I can't quite explain why, but I've never understood how somebody can dislike sometimes and not know why.
One positive thing is that 63.3% of the reasons that people are fearful and/or scared of snakes are made from ignorance about the snakes, so assuming we could convinced these people we'd lower the reasons by about 63% it gives me a little more hope in that when I talk to people and try to convert them to my way of thinking about snakes I do have a good chance :) Obviously if somebody dislikes a snakes speed or appearance there isn't alot I can do, but I can teach about constriction and snake behavior!
Well that's all folks, feel free to discuss. Bare in mind this was only 100 random people which is a tiny, tiny number and they were from all over the world :)
However from the 20th person to the 100th person the percentage never went about 35% or below 30% |
| 19 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| LittlestarRed |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 14:16:02
Interesting results there Kelf! I had no idea so many people thought all snakes had dangerous venom!
My best friend was terrified of snakes! She refused to come through our door when we got our first, a little Corn no less lol! She thought we were mad to have a snake with young children in the house and said we were irresponsible! Once she saw how much the kids loved our snake she started to change her mind.
She became determined to shake her "silly phobia" and so I agreed to help. 15 months and a lot of stress and hard work later and she's able to do this:
(sorry I realise that is huge)
Here is my very brave bestie 'Sophie', trussed up by the lovely Lily! :)
She's still a little nervous but it shows what education and experience can do!
|
| JodiT |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 11:58:00
Almost every person who has handled my royal afterwards has said 'Oh I thought snakes were slimy'
This has got to be the one of most common misconceptions about snakes that I have heard.. and one of the most annoying! |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 10:17:07
I'm always wary with mammals I just don't trust something that humanlike :/ Snakes are so easy to read but dogs? Never know what mood they're in, scary things. |
| AndyJ80 |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 09:34:51
Fear in something is installed. As some of you may know I also have a german shepherd, named Deefa, my cousin will not get anywhere near her. I admit she is a bit boisterous but has never done anything remotely aggressive to a person...a cat however is a different story lol.
I can pin point the exact moment when my aunt and uncle's attitude to my dog changed, and it involved my dog barking (admittedly at them) when they startled her when they walked into the kitchen (Deefa was asleep at the time under the table), from that moment on they told my cousin that large dogs cannot be trusted, etc, etc.
What makes their opinion so ironic is they have a dog which has bitten me more times than a mosquito lol |
| Tiggy |
Posted - 09/10/2012 : 02:23:22
 Hmmmmmmm.....a friend popped in for a coffee a few days ago, when I went back into the room with the stuff she was nowhere to be seen!!!!! Thought she had done a runner when she spotted Pagan staring out from his viv......but now I'm thinking......did he EAT her??????? (lol) |
| Cookie |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 22:18:01
I hate when people say... "Ewwww arnt they all... like... slimy and all... and I heard this story about someones snake laying beside them in bed, eyeing them up to eat!"------NO they are not slimy for gods sake, and you would need a pritty big friggin snake to eat a human lol |
| Cookie |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 22:15:27
quote:
Originally posted by jonnyc1988
I remember when I got my first corn snake it was all cute and stuff in the shop, like a little worm in the palm of my hand. I got it home and when I went to put its water bowl in it started hissing at me, I jumped out my skin. Couldnt believe I was terrorfied of something so small and harmless.
That made me laugh! haha |
| coxcats |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 20:15:09
I actually got asked by a woman at work if I had to keep anti-venom indoors in case one of mine bit me! |
| Lotabob |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 16:57:54
It does amaze me that people fear animals they have very little chance of encountering. I honestly am not scared of any animal. Now if I was face to face with a lion, I would fear the lion, in shark infested water I would be terrified of the sharks but sitting here neither are an issue so I don't fear them. I suppose that's the difference between fear and phobia.
I have a friend that is scared of snakes, she has her work cut out though because I am determined to show her that they are nothing to fear. When I first got my corn snake it came to the first time of handling one without anyone experienced around, I was nervous, I had no idea how it was going to react, I'd never dealt with anything but docile adults, but I went for it and after a few minutes I realised it was just a much smaller version of the adults.
I think the vast majority of people that are scared of snakes actually aren't as they have no clue about them so they are actually fearing some other animal that doesn't actually exist. |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 12:13:08
Aye I never forgave my grandmother for instilling snake fear into my nephew and niece, I have pictures of my nephew at like age 5 with Pandora and all the snakes but now at 8 from all the times my grandmother has done the whole "Ooooh! don't go into Stevie's room the snakes will get you! Hiiiissss!!" bull**** he won't go near them :( |
| badwool |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 10:43:54
I agree with the above.
My kids are 6 and 3 and although we've only had snakes with them for 4 months they will confidently handle any of them |
| BlueDragon |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 09:16:27
quote:
Originally posted by Kelfezond
One of the most disturbing things I discovered was some peoples straight up hatred for them, with no real reason they could pick. I normally understand fears and phobia's I have many myself and I can't quite explain why, but I've never understood how somebody can dislike sometimes and not know why.
I believe a lot of it might lie in how these people were rasied. A lot of parents will react in certain ways to things in front of their kids and this tends to produce a 'learnt fear' of that thing. There's been lots of study done on it that says if you show fear towards something your kids will follow and will grow up with an unexplainable fear towards these things. And what's bad about this is that it can be very hard to teach an adult not to be afraid of something they learnt to be afraid of so early on.
And of course you then get parents that will flat out tell their kids that Snakes are, 'fact', evil, slimy and poisonous things that will rip your face off and eat you. And that doesn't help either. Not least 'cause non of it is true : / |
| jonnyc1988 |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 06:56:00
I remember when I got my first corn snake it was all cute and stuff in the shop, like a little worm in the palm of my hand. I got it home and when I went to put its water bowl in it started hissing at me, I jumped out my skin. Couldnt believe I was terrorfied of something so small and harmless. |
| jonnyc1988 |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 06:53:28
Im amazed you didnt get the typical preconception of "they are slimey" lol. |
| acd1984 |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 05:33:03
I can understand the people who say that they don't like the look of them. Before I owned my first, I could not see a snake whilst eating even if it was a pic or tv. I have no explanation for this but it's the truth, obviously now is very different lol
And if you guys remember when I got my first royal I was absolutely terrified of him, which I didn't realise until I got him that I was scared of snakes, although I am comfortable with my royals now, I still can't handle aggressive snakes even though iv had my fair share of tags that don't hurt |
| IncurableFlirt |
Posted - 08/10/2012 : 01:46:16
I once had someone tell me they didn't like snakes because they are descendants of the devil (because Lucifer was portrayed in Genesis as a snake). I usually get annoyed by people who tell me they don't like snakes because they're slimy.  |
| Laws |
Posted - 07/10/2012 : 22:32:25
the weirdest answer i had off someone when i askd them why they didnt like snakes was "i dont trust anything without legs..." |
| Kelfezond |
Posted - 07/10/2012 : 18:34:26
True enough, Rock! |
| rockroyal |
Posted - 07/10/2012 : 15:02:51
This does prove that what some people see and read they believe? Let's take that stupid film (snakes on a plane) though funny it adds to the misinformed reasons why people say they don't like snakes. |
