DANGER VERSUS FEAR: A KEY TO UNDERSTANDING BIOPHOBIA.

Zeller K., Mouquet N., Garcia C., Dezecache G., Maille A., Duboscq J., Morino J.L., & Bonnet X. (2025).

People and Nature, doi: 10.1002/pan3.70009

Key message : We developed an immersive online survey based on animal images matches, during which participants had to choose the animal they feared most. With responses from 17,353 participants from all continents, we were able to rank 184 species (mammals, reptiles, birds, arthropods and amphibians) on a fear scale. Our results showed that images of dangerous animals elicited frequent and rapid fear responses. However, danger alone was not sufficient to explain fear, as harmless animals also reached high fear scores. Fear responses varied with participants' age, geographical region of residence and level of declared biophobia. The discrepancy between actual levels of danger and declared fears in humans may be due to social transmission and increasing disconnection from natural environments. This study highlights the need to consider a wide range of animal species to identify and understand people's fear of certain species, integrating the complex relationship between ecological danger and socio-cultural influences.

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Workflow of the Lost in Wilderness online survey and the different analyses and methods employed. In the first part, pairs of animal images (in the figure: Neofelis nebulosa versus Agalychnis callidryas) were presented and participants had to click on the animal they feared the most. In the second part, participants answered questions regarding personal information. Decision outcomes and decision times during image matches were analysed using Elo ratings and Bayesian GLMs. In the third part, participants faced eight animal images (Bitis gabonica, Hipposideros speoris, Lycosidae sp., Panthera tigris, Pithecophaga jefferyi, Mandrillus leucophaeus, Canis rufus and Ursus americanus) and had to choose the one that scared them the most before answering questions characterizing the fear of the selected animal. Proportions of participants selecting each of the eight possible animals, as well as the proportions of participants declaring being afraid of being injured, killed or eaten by the animal they selected were calculated.

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OTHER TOPICS: Aesthetics of Biodiversity, Biogeography, Macroecology & Ecophylogenetics, Experimental Evolution, Functional Biogeography, Functional Rarity, Nature for Future, Metacommunities, Metaecosystems, Reviews and Synthesis, Trophic Biogeography & Metaweb