What is acrophobia and why do people fear heights?

Those who have played on the glass plank road must know that when standing on it, your legs will be so weak that you can’t move at all.

We all know that we have no problem looking up from below, so why do we develop a fear of heights when we stand on a high place and look down? So what is acrophobia and why do people have a fear of heights? Let's talk about it today.

01. What is acrophobia?

Acrophobia, also known as fear of heights, is a special phobia characterized by excessive and unreasonable fear and worry about heights or high environments. Why do people fear heights? This question can be interpreted separately:

1. Is the fear of heights caused by height differences? The answer is both no and yes.

Reason for denial: Acrophobia is caused by looking down at the ground, rather than looking up at the sky.

Reason for affirmation: The feeling of climbing stairs and looking down from a skyscraper is different. Many people are afraid of heights because of the latter.

2. Is there any relationship between people's fear of heights and gravity? Yes, but it is not an absolute relationship.

First of all, we can imagine that gravity is unevenly distributed around the world. The gravity in Tibet and Shanghai is obviously different. But it is rare to hear that people are afraid of heights when they go to Tibet. More people suffer from altitude sickness.

Secondly, let's go a little more extreme. The gravity in space is about 0, but astronauts are not afraid of heights. They are actually adapting to the changes.

After solving these problems, we will find that fear of heights is actually related to the external environment, but it is not the determining factor.

02. Fear of heights is a psychological and physiological reaction

Let's imagine that your bedroom is moved from the 1st floor to the 100th floor while you are sleeping. If you wake up and draw the curtains, are you afraid of heights? The answer should be no.

I saw a study on our army's paratroopers, which pointed out that fear of heights refers to the human body's unique psychological and physiological reactions in high environments , mainly manifested as tension and fear caused by objects or buildings at a certain height, and the accompanying physiological reactions such as panic, dizziness, and rapid breathing.

Okay, everyone should understand that fear of heights is a psychological and physiological reaction.

03. Fear of heights is also a form of fear

I am here to do a little porter: Acrophobia is mainly a psychological phenomenon of fear . The word "fear" can be seen from the name. Fear is one of the basic emotions of human beings. It is an emotion produced when the human body encounters danger or recalls or imagines danger . Acrophobia is more of an emotion caused by imagining risks.

An important source of fear is the fear generated by imagining danger . Most of our fears are like this, for example, many people are afraid of ghosts, and the main reason is the result of imagination. There is also the fear caused by high-speed driving (high-speed rail requires special glass to slow down this visual impact), etc.

Just like this picture, the glass and the non-transparent part on the edge have the same properties, but many people still prefer to walk on the edge rather than the glass in the middle, because glass gives people a feeling of being fragile. Therefore, the fear brought by this imagined danger will prompt people to stay away from glass.

Swedish psychologist Arne Ohman believes that fear originates from very ancient evolution. There is a branch of psychology called evolutionary psychology, which studies the evolution of certain psychological factors. Fear is a psychological factor that originates from evolution. Humans take various precautions against things that threaten them , which is reflected in fear psychologically.

But there is still a gap between fear and acrophobia. Fear means that humans can have fears, such as fear of heights, fear of depths, fear of confinement, fear of marriage, etc.

04. Why are people afraid of heights?

First of all, acrophobia is a form of threat prevention, specifically it may be caused by the fear of falling from a height.

More specifically, fear of heights is a psychological defense mechanism , because once you are out of the height, the fear of heights will disappear. There are at least three sources of fear of heights:

1. Learning process. This should be obvious. We have seen many reports that babies are not afraid of heights. So many babies will crawl to the edge of the bed without retreating until they fall down.

This shows that most babies are not afraid of heights, and we can even see people falling from tall buildings. As the pain of falling again and again, children begin to develop their own fear of falling, which then develops a conditioned reflex.

2. Evolutionary psychology. This is mainly aimed at natural fear phenomena, such as our fear of heights when we stand in high places.

This fear is so deeply embedded in the human consciousness that it may even be imprinted in our genes (there is no evidence for this statement because I don’t know which gene is responsible for this feeling).

3. Perception process. This source is mainly based on the judgment of many people. For example, inverted images can easily cause perceptual illusions. Just like this picture, I immediately felt uncomfortable when I switched from upright to inverted.

Finally, let me briefly summarize: acrophobia is a psychological defense mechanism used to deal with the risks brought by heights. It comes from the human fear of falling and is passed down from generation to generation through education and life experience.

ps1: Since it is a mass psychology, there must be special psychology. Some people have severe fear of heights, which should be regarded as a perceptual disorder and needs to be treated.

ps2: I feel guilty about writing this answer. Psychology is very complicated. Experts are welcome to correct me.

ps3. I saw many netizens having the urge to jump down from high places. This is the first time I have heard of this phenomenon.

ref.

[1] Yang Jun. Study on psychological and behavioral characteristics of airborne troops' fear of heights[D]. Fourth Military Medical University, 2012.

[2]. Latest US research shows that fear of heights is related to perceptual bias[N]. Xinhua Daily Telegraph, 2009-03-02008.