After reviewing the responses from our survey and interviews we were able to make connections to claims within the secondary sources we had included in our research. The public survey showed us that influences from family members did affect how they currently felt about spiders. Jason Armfield and Julie Mattiske claim in Behaviour and Research Therapy that a warped perception of spiders greatly contributes to the level of fear that a person will feel toward an organism, and in this case a spider. If parents have a warped perspective of spiders, we believe that their children learn to be frightened of them through learned responses. Parents who were less afraid of spiders had children who had little to no fear of spiders according to their study.
The authors of the article “Parental History, Aversive Exposure and the Development of Snake and Spider Phobia in Women”, state that social learning experiences, and prepared learning affect how a person will react or respond to spiders. Our research clearly shows that outside stimuli play a part in how a person will learn to view spiders. During our interviews, one interviewee claimed that she believed movies and books had helped to solidify how she perceives spiders currently, as frightening and disgusting creatures. We can notice how this can be true in the children’s story we analyzed, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets. Although it showed an exaggeration of what a spider is capable of, it is a clear example of how these arachnids are portrayed in children literacy as frightening creatures. This is important because especially at the age most people are exposed to stories like this is when they are young. At such a younger age, it is easier for perceptions to be changed and in this case, it can lead to altered perceptions of spiders.
Based on the evidence gathered we were able to theorize that without negative outside influences, such as scary spiders in movies and literature, or parental influence, the amount of people who are frightened of spiders would drastically drop.
