The public survey provided ample information on spider fear. After the survey was complete, ninety six people participated, and allowed for us to have a wider scope on the roots of spider fear and its causes. We asked a series of questions, multiple choice and short answer in order to gather a wide scope of data on spider fear. In order to understand the topic at hand we also read and reviewed and two scholarly sources concerning the roots behind arachnophobia. As well, as five interviews on peers on the Western campus. This allowed for us to have depth in our research, and provided various perspectives and results.
The results concerning the survey were quite straightforward. We asked the question of whether the family members (immediate, siblings and parents) were afraid of spiders. A shocking forty percent said yes, and forty-eight percent claimed that some but not all their family members were afraid. We also asked the surveyors if they thought that their fear was influenced from a young age, in which seventy-eight percent claimed that they were. These results corresponded with the responses we had in our interviews. Out of the three interviewees we had interviewed, two of them were deathly afraid of spiders and felt that their fear was learned from a young age and influenced by their family.
Based on this information in the survey, we decided to dive into a childhood movie that was well known to a lot of people that might be an example of an influence to spider fear. By looking at different movies that we both remembered that had a scary spider character in the plot, we decided on picking the movie, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets. This was an important choice because Harry Potter is a childhood novel series that had a lot of influence in its readers/viewers lives since it reached so much popularity.
Analyzing the story, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets, by J.K Rowling was not a new discovery for the both of us. We both recognized the story as children and remember having it as a reading option in our elementary classrooms. When reflecting back at the story-line and looking through pictures we got flashbacks to when we first saw the movie. The frightening image of the character, Aragog. Aragog was a character in the story who was depicted as a terrifying monster who lived in a dark forest. In the part of the story Aragog showed up in, he introduces himself as a creature who eats humans and has hundreds of children who do the same. In the movie, the protagonists were trembling in the presence of this creature who looked gigantic, hairy, and frightening.
The character, Aragog, from the movie, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets.