• Question: how come i am scared of heights and so is my brother but neither of our parents are?

    Asked by gg123456789 to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi @gg123456789
      Great question – phobias are really strange aren’t they?

      I’m not really sure why people get phobias, but I don’t think they’re genetic, so it’s not likely that you inherit your fears from your parents, although maybe from their behaviour you could.

      Someone else asked me how we develop fears, and this is what I said:

      There’s a lot of research going on in to how we develop fears, but as far as I can tell an agreement hasn’t been reached. There’s an area in the brain called the amygdala, and this is related to fear – people who have a very active amygdala tend to be more anxious than those whose amygdala is less active.

      Hope this helps, sorry I don’t know for definite! 🙂

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