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Fear and the Stone Age
Our instinctual predispositions
When something is scary, our instinct is typically to avoid it.
Clearly, this is useful for survival and is not a defect of our evolutionary development. When a small child refuses to walk into a dark room, even when adults are around, that child is exhibiting behavior specifically designed to keep themselves alive.
I often relate contemporary situations to what we did in the Stone Age. The child who won’t go into the dark room is exactly the same as the prehistoric child who won’t venture far from the campfire. You didn’t need to worry about your offspring wandering into the woods and getting eaten by a predator.
We’re hardwired to avoid the darkness.
As an adult, we still have those fears rooted deeply within us. The only difference is that we now have logic and personal history to draw from to remind us that we aren’t actually in danger.
Even now at 35 years old, my brain conjures up all types of horrific images when I’m alone in a boiler room or about to open the shower curtain in an empty house at night. Even though I know there’s no danger, I half expect to be met with some demonic entity huddling in the bathtub with blood dripping from its maniacally crazed eyeballs.
