Fears, phobias and disgust related to bees and other arthropods
Year: 2013
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Copyright © 2013 K. Münstedt and A. K. Mühlhans. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Fears and phobias exist related to bees, spiders and other small arthropods; however, there are few studies to date which analyse differing views about various arthropods in relation to their potential dangers and ecological and economical benefits, especially the honey bee. Knowledge of these issues could help to improve potential conflicts between beekeepers and their anxious neighbours. We assessed attitudes towards various arthropods—wasps, hornets, bees, woodlouse (slater, sowbug) and ladybirds—based on earlier questionnaires concerning spider phobia in 223 randomly selected participants, and related them to personality factors assessed by various standardized questionnaires. Furthermore, we determined the perceived mortality risk arising from the potential threat of various arthropods in relation to various other causes of death, and compared the data to the exact figures supplied by the German Federal Office for Statistics.
Authors: K. Munstedt, A. K. Muhlhans
Institution: Universitätsklinikum Gießen und Marburg
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4242044120