TIL that 3% to 15% of the human population have Arachnophobia (aka anywhere from 246 million to 1.2 billion out of the current 8.2 billion population)

[u/PnPineappleApplePn]

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21852-arachnophobia-fear-of-spiders

[u/Pattoe89]

3-15% is a huge range, though. The accuracy of data collection must be piss poor.

[u/Slurms_McKensei → u/Pattoe89]

Because there's a huge discrepancy between the number of people who would say they have arachnophobia and the number of people who have an actual phobia level aversion to arachnids

[u/DrArtificer → u/Slurms_McKensei]

I live with someone who has arachnophobia. I definitely just dislike spiders. I'm averse to anything potentially venomous, she will have a full panic attack once she finds one and starts screaming for help while she watches it to make sure someone else can kill it and it doesn't escape.

[u/Quinlov → u/Slurms_McKensei]

Yeah this. I really dislike spiders but I wouldn't say it's a phobic level aversion. I have that to heights, and also to parasites and debatably to rats (once I thought there was a rat in my room - I hadn't seen one even - so I slept on the street for a few nights. I was in psychosis at the time tho so it might have been just that I am scared of them plus I was psychotic, rather than actually having a phobia of rats)

[u/drewster23 → u/Slurms_McKensei]

Yeah, I hate fucking spiders , but there's plenty of times I leave them be, I just tell them fuck you don't come near me and I ain't killing you they also just make too many fucking webs outside that I end up walking through to take trash out of go to car at night. Givez me the eeby jeebies.

My buddy on the other hand got mad at us for sharing a meme with a spider in it and not telling him and also wanted to stop playing a game once he go to a part with spiders that he wasn't aware of. I don't know what would happen if he walked into a web.

[u/Quinlov → u/drewster23]

Ye just the other day my mum had a go at me for not washing my bedsheets every single week and I practically bit her head off because I'm terrified of bed bugs and similar, I tried not to snap but even the thought of them is enough that I had to immediately shut down the conversation

[u/Hyndstein_97 → u/Pattoe89]

I'd imagine the data to arrive at that range is collated from multiple sources of self-reported data, so is as good as useless really. Actual phobia level fears affect the day to day life of sufferers (way beyond needing to squish it or put it outside when they see a spider). 3% even is insanely high for that, I don't think I've ever knowingly met someone who is that freaked out by spiders. It's probably massively skewed by people who are a little freaked when they see one saying they're arachnophobic when filling out surveys.

[u/Pattoe89 → u/Hyndstein_97]

Yeah, according to the Mind organisation a phobia is an anxiety disorder which causes a deep sense of dread and can result in uncontrollable panic attacks.

They list these three points to differentiate a fear from a phobia:

• the fear is out of proportion to the danger
• it lasts for more than six months
• it has a significant impact on how you live your day-to-day life.

[u/Hyndstein_97 → u/Pattoe89]

Fear of spiders becomes a phobia when it consumes your thoughts, interferes with your daily activities and keeps you from socializing with your family and friends.

Another definition, from the source OP linked, which I now realise is an ad trying to sell cognitive behavioural therapy treatments for arachnophobia.

[u/AnInsultToFire → u/Pattoe89]

True fact: even if it were 15%, there are enough spiders in the world to eat all people with arachnophobia in 1 day.

[u/SheepherderNo2440 → u/AnInsultToFire]

Big if true

[u/MrBarraclough]

Even at the 3% end of the range, that sounds like an implausibly high estimate for a phobia level fear.

True phobias interfere with activities of daily living. They are deep seated, irrational, and intrusive. People who have difficulty being outdoors because of a near-constant, obsessive fear of spiders even in situations where encountering one isn't particularly likely have arachnophobia.

People like me who have an aversion to spiders, who get chills/shivers from looking at them, and who have what I call an "arachnoleptic fit" when walking into a spiderweb, aren't actually arachnophobic.

[u/BigRobCommunistDog → u/MrBarraclough]

Arachnoleptic fit is my word of the week now

[u/TheS00thSayer → u/MrBarraclough]

I have a phobia of elevators

[u/[deleted] → u/TheS00thSayer]

They have their ups and downs

[u/DUSTIN182W]

For anyone wondering what is considered arachnophobia: “Fear of spiders becomes a phobia when it consumes your thoughts, interferes with your daily activities and keeps you from socializing with your family and friends.”

[u/jupfold → u/DUSTIN182W]

Right, makes sense. I’m sure the “I don’t particularly like spiders” crowd is probably a lot larger.

I’d fall into that group myself, but definitely don’t fit into the definition you provided.

[u/grumblyoldman → u/jupfold]

3% - 15%: Arachnaphobia

84% - 96%: Don't particularly like spiders

1%: People who study and categorize spiders so the rest of us don't have to think about them.

[u/Boozdeuvash → u/grumblyoldman]

I like spiders because they eat mosquitos.

[u/Impossible_Mode_3614 → u/jupfold]

I don't believe it's this severe. Noway 1 billion people are regularly missing out on socializing because they are afraid of spiders.

[u/omicron7e → u/DUSTIN182W]

No way true arachnophobia is that high then. Unless the definition of “interferes with your daily activities” can be applied quite loosely.

[u/Impossible_Mode_3614 → u/DUSTIN182W]

I'm trying to picture how arachnophobia stops you from socializing?

I can see the very worst cases not going out because they are afraid they will run into spiders, but not 1 in 8 people. No way.

[u/serendipitousevent → u/Impossible_Mode_3614]

That's the general definition for a phobia - it doesn't have to be all of those things. A simpler definition would be 'interferes with day-to-day life'.

[u/Tigerowski → u/Impossible_Mode_3614]

A spider has made a web right in front of your door.

Boom. You're stuck if you have a phobia.

Or there's a bbq and you just know there'll be spiders dangling all about under the table, as it's outside all year long.

[u/Blein123 → u/Tigerowski]

Then I have arachnophobia

[u/Tigerowski → u/Blein123]

Oh. I can tell you that I have it and I have it bad.

I have a general rule when deciding where to travel: I don't travel to places where spiders get as big as my hands.

[u/jsdhaksdhalid1 → u/Impossible_Mode_3614]

If I was at a mates house and there was a spider around I would have to leave for example.

[u/KnuteViking → u/Impossible_Mode_3614]

Well like, your friends might actually turn out to be like ten thousand spiders in a trench coat.

[u/Impossible_Mode_3614 → u/KnuteViking]

Fool me once shame on you....

[u/GeneralMatrim → u/DUSTIN182W]

I like spiders they kill all the other bugs that I have a phobia against.

[u/High_Overseer_Dukat]

I hate scorpions more than spiders.

[u/Vega_Lyra7 → u/High_Overseer_Dukat]

You know to fear scorpions more than spiders if you’ve ever been stung by one. Little fuckers.

[u/ebikr]

DVD or VHS?

[u/AmazinTim]

“A lot of people don’t like spiders” is a pretty low bar for TIL

[u/Fin745 → u/AmazinTim]

Arachnophobia is more than just “I don’t like spiders”, Just like agoraphobia is more than just “I don’t like to go outside”.

[u/willcomplainfirst]

that seems too high. theres no way up to a billion people are unable to live healthy lives due to spiders, is there? even the 246 million estimate seems way too high, no?

[u/MathCrank]

I blame the movie arachnophobia

[u/bonesnaps]

I'm sure a lot of it is misdiagnosed and these stats were from a generic survey.

 I'm afraid of spiders in the sense that some are potentially lethal, and still I dislike the rest. I'm sure this would somehow count towards that metric.

[u/Semhirage]

World of Warcraft now has an Arachniphobia mode that turns all the spiders into lobsters and crabs. Kinda neat they made the game more accessible.

[u/Icy-Outcome7979]

Undetectable, tiny, 1-shotting ninja

[u/lucasws1]

yeah, count me in, it makes me shit in my pants.

this is a sensitive matter for me because i'm the definition of fearless or the epitome of manliness - as you wish -, people already paid me money ($5) to do things they can't handle, like go to scary ride in the amusement park (felt good like i was some kind of superhero). but if you show me a hairy spider i'll make involuntary strange noises like a little girl sobbing and cry with a ugly face while trying to hold my tears and i'll run like a baby (or roll in the ground i dont know if babies can run i'm no spealist in small humans). it's pretty paradoxal and make me question my whole life. so please don't show me a spider

[u/Morvack → u/lucasws1]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm a 30 year old, 6 foot 2, 250LB man. You want to see me run like I'm being chased by a bull? All you gotta do is tell me there's a bee behind me.

We all have our thing that makes us into a baby.

[u/CommunalJellyRoll]

I for one love my spider bros. Please don't kill me spiders.

[u/MrFiendish]

This is why I hate when video games have a “no spiders mode” in their games, replacing spider enemy models with…I dunno…bunnies or something.

Conquer undead of spiders by destroying hundreds of virtual spiders! Confront youngest and destroy every one of those 8-legged monstrosities!

[u/FoolsGoldTL]

Why ? They are cute

[u/VinnyFlow → u/FoolsGoldTL]

I don't have arachnophobia but if you have to say "why" that's weird

[u/FoolsGoldTL → u/VinnyFlow]

You could have fear of Carebears it would be the same question. It needs to have something backing it

[u/tellthegreentree → u/FoolsGoldTL]

Tiny? Check. Cool legs? Check. Multiple eyes ? Cool af. Check. Build their own house out of their body? Way too badass. Double-check.

Spiders are the best!🕷️🕷️

[u/grumblyoldman → u/[deleted]]

I remember one time as a kid riding in the car home from vacation. Probably 2 - 3 hour car ride.

The whole time my foot is tickling and itching, and I'm thinking to myself "that's weird, no matter how much I scratch it keeps coming back."

Finally get home and take off my shoes, and an earwig falls out. Those fuckers have been #2 after spiders ever since.

[u/SirLiesALittle]

“Are you afraid of spiders?” seemed to be the question. One of those studies that I don’t think required clinical diagnosis to call it arachnophobia, because that term has been stretched to mean feeling terror without significant daily disruption of one’s life. The inbetween of not liking and phobia that would cover up to the 15% range.

[u/CornRedd]

Do you understand how “aka” and parentheses work..?

[u/PnPineappleApplePn → u/CornRedd]

I think I understand how to use parentheses and “aka” perfectly fine. In fact one of the rules to using parenthesis is to clarify preceding words and nonessential information.

https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/parentheses.

You can work on not being as condescending, though🤗