Humans carry ancient survival wiring in their brains. The fight, flight, or freeze responses, and certain animals can strongly trigger or even shape these instincts through both evolutionary history and learned (conditioned) experiences.
Animal Conditioned Behaviors
The conditioned experiences guaranteed animals' successful existence in as much as depending on humans either for food or shelter. The animals' dependence on humans ensures their survival. The numbers of rats and mosquitoes, for instance has risen significantly because of conditioned habit that let them depend on humans for their survival. This dependence developed over the period of time.
Like animals humans learn to handle and produce defensive response to fear through evolutionary classical conditioning. In that sense the insects and animals triggered a change in our behavior to protect ourselves from their harmful habits. Sleeping under mosquito nets, for instance is a human conditioned habit for survival which protects us from mosquito bites.
Also domestication of plants and animals for food and medicine helps the survival of the species. Wheat, rice, maize, cows, sheeps, goats, cats, and dogs are examples of the life species succeeded to dominate the human life. We grow and raise them for our own consumption and companionship, in turn they manage to continue surviving against changes that occur in nature over time.
How different animals influence our conditioned survival instincts
While some animal species live side by side with humans, other live far away from human settlements because of evolutionary triggers and conditioned responses.
Evolutionary Triggers
Some animals have been threats to humans for thousands of years, so our brains are primed to react to them even without direct experience.
Studies show humans (even toddlers) can detect shapes of snakes and spiders faster than neutral objects, suggesting an inherited fear response.
Our ancestors’ encounters with large predators (lions, leopards, wolves) these animals hardwired vigilance, rapid threat assessment, and group defense behaviors.
Bright warning colors or distinctive movement patterns can trigger avoidance of venomous creatures (scorpions, and certain species of frogs) before conscious thought.
Conditioned Responses
Through personal experience, culture, or media, humans can develop learned survival reactions to animals.
Many people’s fear sharks, this is amplified by stories, films, and rare but dramatic attacks, conditioning avoidance of deep or murky waters.
A single aggressive encounter with dogs can condition a lasting fear, even though most dogs are harmless.
Bats and Rats often are linked to disease in cultural narratives, conditioning people to avoid them even in non-threatening contexts.
How Animals Shape Human Behavior
Humans developed heightened senses, fight, flight and freeze instincts as well as social bonding for safety behavior.
Fight, Flight, Freeze
Observing a charging bull or a sudden snake movement can trigger adrenaline spikes and split-second decision-making.
Heightened Senses
In predator-rich environments, humans become more attuned to sounds, smells, and movement. This is a skill that can persist even in urban life.
Social Bonding for Safety
Herding together in the presence of dangerous wildlife mirrors prey-animal behavior, reinforcing cooperation as a survival tool.
Modern Context
Even in cities, animals still influence our conditioned instincts. Mosquitoes for instance, in malaria-prone areas, people develop hyper-awareness of buzzing sounds.
In some regions, humans adapt daily routines to avoid confrontations with stray dogs or monkeys. On the other hand, communities near migration routes learn seasonal avoidance patterns for safety against wild Elephants
Evolutionary Conditioning
Over thousands of years, other species have acted as selective forces on human survival and behavior.
- Predators like big cats such as lions and leopards, also snakes, and raptors shaped our vigilance, fear responses, and group defense strategies.
- Parasites and Pathogens such as mosquitoes, fleas, and certain mammals carrying diseases influenced our hygiene habits, settlement patterns, and even genetic immunity. The availability of plants and animals for food conditioned migration routes, tool-making, and cooperation which ensured an easy access to food sources.
Behavioral and Social Conditioning
Humans learn from observing and interacting with other species.
- Domesticated animals such as dogs and horses conditioned humans toward cooperation, training skills, and emotional bonding across species. In addition, encounters with aggressive animals can create long-lasting conditioned fears (e.g., avoiding certain habitats).
- Relationships between human and other life species became mutualistic. Bees, livestock, and crop plants shaped agricultural societies, conditioning humans to protect and manage other species.
Ecological and Cultural Conditioning
Other living things influence not just survival instincts but also our cultural norms and worldviews.
- Totem Animals and Symbols. Many cultures revere certain animals, conditioning moral codes and taboos.
- Ecosystem Engineers. Species like elephants, beavers, or coral indirectly condition human settlement and resource use by altering landscapes.
- Urban wildlife such as pigeons, rats, and stray dogs condition city dwellers’ habits, from waste management to public health measures.
We depend on animals for our scientific researches, we raise them for food in our factories, but we need to change how we treat them. We have to treat them with mercy and respect they deserve. Like them, we are animals too. We can condition other life species and be conditioned by them as well.
Conditioning for survival is not one-way, humans also condition other species. Through domestication, habitat change, and selective breeding, we’ve altered the behavior and evolution of countless species. This creates a co-conditioning cycle: we adapt to them, they adapt to us.
Humans are indeed conditioned animals our behaviors, instincts, and even thought patterns are shaped not only by our environment but also by the presence and influence of other living things. This conditioning happens through a mix of evolutionary pressures, social learning, and direct interaction with other species.
References
MacLean, D. (2022). Humans, animals, and the world we share. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 105(1), 220–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12913
Silva, F. C. E., Kieson, E., Stergiou, A. N., & Pereira-Figueiredo, I. (2024). Editorial: How animals affect us: examining the influence of human-animal interactions on human’s health. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2024.1509960
Hoehl, S., Hellmer, K., Johansson, M., & Gredebäck, G. (2017). Itsy Bitsy Spider…: Infants React with Increased Arousal to Spiders and Snakes. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01710
Dunsmoor, J. E., & Murphy, G. L. (2015). Categories, concepts, and conditioning: how humans generalize fear. Trends in cognitive sciences, 19(2), 73–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.12.003
Read related
Thank you for reading!