How many people are afraid of heights

With the exception of needles and getting shots and blood — of which British men and women are about equally afraid — more women than men are afraid of each thing. However, this is not the only sense in which spiders are a polarising terror. Young people are also more likely to be afraid of public speaking. That is, people can experience a fear of heights without direct or indirect contact with heights.

Instead, acrophobia is somehow hardwired so people have this fear before they first come into contact with heights. Evolutionary psychologists suggest people who are afraid of heights are more likely to escape from this potentially dangerous situation or avoid it altogether. By doing this, they are then more likely to survive and later reproduce, allowing them to pass on their genes. Researchers suggest that as a result, this fear has been passed down from generation to generation.

But this mechanism cannot account for all phobias. Innate phobias must reflect objects or situations that have presented a long-term threat to human survival. Avoiding the object or situation must also increase opportunities for reproduction.

While the evolutionary perspective may explain phobias such as a fear of heights or snakes, it has difficulty explaining phobias associated with going to the dentist or public speaking. To demonstrate how classical conditioning of phobias occurs, consider the following scenario. Imagine you climbed a tree for the first time. What is your reaction to being up a tree? But if you then fell from the tree, you would likely experience distress and fear. Fear of heights is one of the most common phobias followed by public speaking with an estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of the population suffering so-called acrophobia.

While scientists had thought such phobia was the result of an irrational fear to normal stimuli, new research is suggesting otherwise. In the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, participants had to judge the height of a building when standing at ground level and when atop the building. Compared with participants who scored lowest on an acrophobia test, those most afraid of heights judged the building to be about 10 feet 3 meters higher at ground level and 40 feet 12 meters taller from the top of the building.

So the building actually seems taller to acrophobics, it seems. Does the thought of speaking in front of an audience color your face a bright red , send sweat pouring from your pores and bring a sick feeling to your gut? Those are just a few of the signs of social phobia, which affects about 15 million American adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. And it's not limited to public speaking: Those affected can get the sweats over eating or drinking in front of others, or a general anxiety when around almost anyone other than family members.

The fear begins in childhood or adolescence, usually around the age of About 1. Commonly feared spots and activities include: elevators, sporting events, bridges, public transportation, driving, shopping malls and airplanes, according to the Mayo Clinic. The fear can lead a person to avoid leaving their home, traveling in a car or being in a crowded area.

While most would at least flinch at the sight of Aragog, the human-eating spider depicted in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," the everyday spider can cause the same fear in some people. And it turns out, women are four times more likely to fear such arachnids than men.

They can help with the diagnosis. But if you find that your fears are holding you back from doing things you want or need to do — such as visiting a friend who lives on the top floor of a building — treatment can help.

Exposure therapy is considered to be one of the most effective treatments for specific phobias. For acrophobia, you might start by looking at pictures from the point of view of someone inside a tall building. You might watch video clips of people crossing tightropes, climbing, or crossing narrow bridges. Eventually, you might go out onto a balcony or use a stepladder. This approach may still include a bit of exposure to heights, but this is generally only done within the safe setting of a therapy session.

Start by asking yourself a few basic questions:. Next, start making a list of therapists in your area. Concerned about the cost? Our guide to affordable therapy can help. In recent years, some experts have turned their attention to virtual reality VR as a potential method for treating phobias.

Using computer software gives you the option to stop right away if things feel overwhelming. A study looked at the effects of VR on people with acrophobia. Participants only experienced low levels of discomfort during VR sessions. Many reported that VR therapy was helpful. While the study authors noted that more research is needed in the field, they concluded that VR may be an easily accessible, affordable treatment option since it can be done at home.