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Heck, some fears may date back to a time when our distant ancestors
hadn't moved down from the trees to the savanah: fear of snakes. I saw a
guy at the Philadelphia Natural History Museum give a demo with a live
snake; he asked the audience to raise their hand if they were afraid of
snakes. Then he asked people with their hands raised to tell why their
feared the ophidians. Try this - you'll get interesting answers.

True story: I was training a reluctant staffer to handle snakes. We were
sitting in our wildlife sanctuary, holdinmg a couple snakes, in front of
an enclosure where we have a caracal (a ~35 lb. african lynx). One
visitor saw him, and was oohing and ahhing over him, then saw the snakes
we were holding and jumped back in alarm. The irony: we were holding
ball pythons, possibly the most laid-back species on earth, and even if
they weren't, incapable of doing serious damage. Our caracal, while very
handsome, has a testy personality, and is fully capable of mussing you
up.

Don't fear the reaper,
Jonah


"Lisa! In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

            -Homer Simpson


-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anders Liljeholm

The Science of Fear, by Daniel Gardner, is a book that every science
educator should read.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780525950622-0

Gardner lays out in an engaging manner how human psychology reacts to
danger, or the idea of danger.  We assess potential risks instinctively
based on a few rules that were well suited to the African savanna where
it evolved, but are a horrible match for mass communication technology.

We react to stuff based on how familiar and common and good or bad it
seems, not how dangerous it actually is.  And when we teach people about
the scientific knowledge on risky things, we have to deal with these
emotional reactions.

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