Question

In the general population, fears of snakes and the dark occur more frequently than fears of cats and dogs. An explanation according to the theory of evolution is that:

Answer 1

Explanation:

An explanation according to the theory of evolution is that:

People are predisposed by evolution to fear certain things, such as snakes and the dark that would have been dangerous to our ancestors.

Hence people tend to be exposed to a lot of negative informations regarding snakes and the dark, which make them developed negative response and fear towards them. And since cats and dogs are not associated with this negative believes, people tends to  preferentially associate them with positive responses.

Answer 2

Answer: Biological preparedness is pre-wired but we can also learn fear through observation.

Explanation: An explanation according to the theory of evolution is that biological preparedness is pre-wired but we can also learn fear through observation. This simply means that some of our current behaviors are evolutionary adaptations; they have been inherited from our ancestors solely because in times past, they solved specific and recurrent problems related to survival/reproduction while some of our behaviors we acquire through observational learning, in other words, new behaviors are learned through direct observation of others.