Phobia

Why do people suffer from phobias of things that are seemingly safe? For example, there are people who have heart attacks every time they see a goldfish through a water tank. Are people born hating things? The real reason is because people are conditioned not to like something from a very early age. An experiment conducted in 1919 showed how fear could be put into a child. Basically the men conducting the experiment placed a few toys in front of a baby such as a rat, blocks, a rabbit, a dog, and more. At first, the baby did not show any fear towards any of the objects. Every time the baby would touch the rat the men would strike a hammer against a metal bar, and they would scare the child. After a few strikes, the child always stayed away from the rat, and actually whimpered sometimes when he saw it. The baby never displayed fear towards any of the other toys; he only feared the rat. This experiment was criticized a lot because the men never attempted to remove the fear. The child remained afraid of rats the rest of his life. This experiment show's that even if people with phobias don’t know it, they attained their fear from childhood incidents. Fear is not the only thing you can condition. You can pretty much condition anyone to do anything at the sound of a specific noise or a particular scent.