Ophidiophobia: Cause and Cure

Snake.  The very sound of the word has a negative connotation in our culture.  If we think somebody borders on evil, we call them a snake.  If they are a liar, we say they have a forked tongue.  Most modern Christians associate snakes with the devil (even though early Christians saw snakes as representative of Christ and redemption.  See John 3:14-16 and Numbers 21:8.)  The fear and hatred of snakes among Western people at large is so strong and pervasive that most people will either run at the first sign of a snake, or turn and kill it.  Over all, the prejudice of the 21^st century West against this animal reaches a fever on par with 14^th century superstitions. What causes this ailment?  What is the cure?  That is what I would like to get us thinking about in this article.

Even non-venomous snakes, such as this indigo snake, strike fear into the hearts of the public.

To understand how to improve public perceptions of snakes, we have to understand what causes those perceptions.  First, let’s consider what is not the cause of this fear and hate.  Attempting to explain it by the fact that many snakes are in fact dangerously venomous is not sufficient.  For many people, their perception of snakes goes beyond honest fear of harm to actual hatred.  And it makes little difference to most people if the snake they are confronted with is confirmed as harmless.  The fear continues. 

Hollywood doesn't help....

Further, though we may be tempted to point the finger at Hollywood, that is not where the blame belongs.  Sensationalized use of snakes on the big screen certainly doesn’t help, but let’s not kid ourselves:  Hollywood can use snakes as a cheap tool for sensation because of the perceptions that the audience comes with beforehand.  Hollywood’s use of snakes doesn’t cause the perception, it exploits it (but certainly also intensifies it). 

Religion is not the cause of fear of snakes in our culture.

  

Lastly, attitudes about snakes are not caused by religion.  Yes, the famous snake from the Garden of Eden extends and deepens the fear for some people, but I would once again argue this is not the source.  In my experience, people of all beliefs tend to have similar views of snakes.  It could be held that, independent of an individual’s present belief system, Judeo-Christian attitudes pervade our Western culture, including attitudes on snakes.  But looking abroad quickly dispels this notion:  it is easy to find a similar picture of snakes in many cultures with no such heritage.  

The legless, serpentine body form is just very, very strange to us.

Venom, Hollywood, and religion impact our view of snakes, but the basic fear we hold for them is independent of all of these.  So where does this fear come from?  My experience observing countless people react to snakes points to the intrinsic characteristics of the snakes themselves as the culprit.  Snakes are the only limbless animal of any appreciable size commonly encountered by humans.  Think about that.  There is no other animal bigger than a worm that is part of our lives that does not have legs.  Other legless squamates and caecilians are indistinguishable from a snake to the average person, and are almost never encountered by the average person anyway.  Eels are marine, a world away.  To most people, snakes are simply the only living thing without legs (besides worms and snails). 

This has huge implications.  A long, flexible body form without definition is extremely alien to us.  But what really freaks us out is how such an animal moves.  I find that the slithering, inching belly crawl of heavy-bodied snakes and the effortless, sleek motion of slender snakes are both terrifying to people.  Add to that the already foreign characteristics of reptiles, including shiny scales (equals slimy in most people’s minds) covering the entire body, ectothermy, unblinking, spectacled eyes, and a flicking, chemosensory tongue, and you have a recipe adding up to the complete estrangement of an animal.  We fear what we don’t understand, and we have virtually no intuitive understanding of snakes.  As tetrapods, we have a certain intrinsic understanding of all other legged creatures.  This one creature that creeps into our lives devoid of legs is in a completely different category for us. 

Just gawking at snakes doesn't necessarily dispel fear.

This may all seem quite obvious and unprofound, but understanding this is essential to understanding the solution.  The solution to the fear and hatred caused by the estrangement between human and snake is anything that relates the two together positively.  It’s not enough that people be merely exposed to snakes, as in nature documentaries or zoos, though this helps.  It’s extremely important that people actually see a snake and human relating positively to one another.  Even more important, people need to relate directly with snakes themselves.  This is common knowledge among wildlife educators.  But just why it is important, and how paramount is that importance, is not always grasped.  Failure to understand why results in ineffectual attempts to change public attitudes.  For instance, many educators will expend great effort explaining the ecological importance of snakes, and the subsequent services to humans they provide.  Others will concentrate on how harmless the huge majority of snakes are, and that dangerous snakes don’t seek harm to humans purposefully.  This knowledge is important for establishing the value of snakes and dispelling overblown fear of venomous snakes.  But it doesn’t address the basic fear of snakes as creatures without legs.  In other words, appealing to people's intellect doesn't resolve the fear because the fear is not primarily intellectual.  It's emotional, and has to be appealed to at that level.

Nothing compares with a visceral connection to establish understanding.

The best way to do that is to bring people face to face with a snake, especially at a young, impressionable age.  Even a brief encounter can accustom someone to the unique body shape and movements of snakes, and they often leave with a new appreciation of snakes as living individuals.  For those bold enough, nothing compares to touching or holding these animals for establishing a connection with a creature otherwise entirely foreign to our sensibilities.  Zoos are more frequently bringing snakes beyond the glass to visitors, with excellent results.  Private keeping of snakes, though not without its drawbacks at times, has also had a great impact:  conscientious snake keepers expose many people within their sphere of influence to personal encounters with snakes.  I see the success of Steve Irwin, otherwise known as the Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet, as stemming from this phenomenon as well.  Viewers vicariously experienced personal encounters with snakes through his unusually hands-on show, and I still meet people who don’t fear snakes because of his influence.

Personally interacting with snakes was perhaps the biggest influence Steve Irwin had over his audience's perception of the animal.

All this is part of the bigger picture of establishing humans in a place amongst nature, not set apart from it.  The chasm between snakes and humans epitomizes that dichotomy, and re-integrating the two is a small step toward an holistic view of all life.  Ultimately, people only save things that they love, and only love what they understand.  We need to recognize the importance of visceral understanding, not just intellectual understanding.  To regain a connection with nature in our culture, nature must spread from our heads to our hearts.  Real life experience with nature does that like nothing else.  Go start with one small step and introduce someone to a serpent.