1. A cross-cultural study of animal fears.
- Author
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Davey GC, McDonald AS, Hirisave U, Prabhu GG, Iwawaki S, Jim CI, Merckelbach H, de Jong PJ, Leung PW, and Reimann BC
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Animals, Cohort Studies, Cross-Sectional Studies, Europe, Asia, Eastern, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, United States, Animal Population Groups, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Fear
- Abstract
The present study represents a cross-cultural study of animal fears in which subjects from seven Western and Asian countries were asked to rate their fear of a range of familiar animals. Factor analyses of these ratings in all samples revealed a coherent three factor solution in which animals fell into a fear-irrelevant, fear-relevant (fierce) or disgust-relevant category. The core group of animals making up the disgust-relevant category were similar across cultures. Some views on how a universal disgust-relevant category of feared animals may have developed are discussed.
- Published
- 1998
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