nonplussedbyreligion:

14-billion-years-later:

Spiders Are Bigger Than They Seem

Arachnophobia, or the irrational fear of spiders, is something that affects 50% of women and 10% of men. But it seems this isn’t the only thing blown out of proportion. A recent study has shown that people who are afraid of spiders actually rate spiders as much bigger than they really are, even trebling the length. The study was conducted by taking arachnophobes who have undergone therapy and getting them to interact with a range of spiders for a few minutes. After this session the human participants were made to fill out a questionnaire rating their level of distress and also asked to draw a line indicated how long they perceived the spider. The results showed a strong correlation between level of distress and exaggerated length of their 8 legged friend with on average the most fearful drawing lines 50% longer than those of the least fearful.

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I saw this and I’ll be having a nightmare, so I thought I’d share.  You’re welcome.  I’m actually not afraid of spiders when I can see them, my fear is more about them being on me when I’m asleep!  Oh yeah and I had a patient I treated for 3 months on IV antibiotics because of an infection they acquired after being bitten by a tiny brown recluse spider!!!

Now every spider I see looks like a brown recluse.  Ok, maybe I am afraid of them. ~ Kim

My greatest irrational fear is that of spiders. I’d call myself a true arachnophobe. I knew a guy once who got bit on his forearm near the elbow by a Brown Recluse. The wound looked like the flesh had been scooped out with a melon baller.