I grew up with children and people in Northern Australia that had zero fear of snakes and spiders with plenty of exposure to both.

When I was 13 a friend of my sister, a large imposing Torres Strait Islander girl, visited and saw a cat for the very first time and screamed fit to break glass while jumping back to break the wall panel and up onto the couch.

This was someone comfortable handling large live mud crabs on the floor, gutting fish, handling snakes and killing them, etc.

Smaller spiders scared me when I was younger, but I have overcome that phobia significantly. Large, hairy, distinctly arthropodic spiders, though...? Yuck.

And when I see a cockroach fly the disgust is multiplied by like ten.

Interesting watch about what babies fear.

I believe that things like fear of needles is something passed on from parents.