Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes): meaning, causes, how common it is and how to overcome it

Ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes: an intense, lasting fear of snakes, out of proportion to any real danger, that leads people to avoid them, sometimes even in pictures or on television. It is a specific phobia of the animal type, like the fear of spiders or birds, and one of the most common fears there is: snakes are “among the most common targets of fears and phobias”, as LoBue and DeLoache (Psychological Science, 2008) put it.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If a fear of snakes affects your daily life, talk to a doctor or a therapist trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Wild snakes can be dangerous: nothing here suggests approaching them.

What does ophidiophobia mean?

Ophidiophobia means “fear of snakes”. It joins the Greek ophis, “serpent”, with -phobia, “fear”, according to Wiktionary, which also lists the shorter form ophiophobia. The same root gives ophidian, “relating to snakes”.

How do you pronounce ophidiophobia?

Say it oh-FID-ee-oh-FOH-bee-uh, with the main stress on “FOH”. The first part sounds like ophidian, which Wiktionary gives as /oʊˈfɪdi.ən/.

What is the fear of snakes called?

The fear of snakes is called ophidiophobia (or ophiophobia). People also simply say snake phobia, phobia of snakes, or being scared of snakes. Some people mainly fear particular snakes, such as large constrictors or venomous species, others mainly the way snakes move, their sudden strikes, their skin or the idea of touching one.

Why are so many people afraid of snakes?

Snakes seem to hold a special place in human fear. Research points to a readiness to learn this fear rather than a fear we are born with:

• adults and preschool children spot a snake among other pictures faster than they spot flowers, frogs or caterpillars (LoBue and DeLoache, Psychological Science, 2008);
• babies of 9 to 10 months did not react differently to films of snakes on their own, but infants aged 7 to 18 months readily linked moving snakes with a frightened voice, which suggests a natural tendency to associate snakes with fear (DeLoache and LoBue, Developmental Science, 2009);
• psychologists Öhman and Mineka (Psychological Review, 2001) describe an evolved “fear module” that is activated quickly and automatically by threats that mattered to our ancestors, such as snakes, and that is hard to switch off by reasoning;
• some researchers go further and propose that snakes shaped the evolution of the primate visual system (Isbell, Journal of Human Evolution, 2006); this is a hypothesis, not a settled fact.

None of this means a phobia is inevitable. A readiness to learn a fear is not the same as a fear that is impossible to unlearn.

What are the symptoms of ophidiophobia?

Symptoms appear near snakes, at the sight of a picture, or just from thinking about them. The NHS lists the typical symptoms of a phobia:

• feeling dizzy or light-headed, a pounding or unusual heartbeat, tightness in the chest;
• feeling sick, trembling or shaking;
• severe anxiety, and an intense fear of fainting, losing control or dying.

Then comes avoidance: skipping walks in the countryside, checking the grass, leaving the room when a documentary shows a snake, avoiding zoos and pet shops. The fear can feel overwhelming even when you know there is no snake nearby.

What causes ophidiophobia?

There is no single known cause. The MSD Manual states that the causes of phobias are unknown. The NHS notes that many phobias can be linked to a frightening event, such as a frightening childhood experience with an animal, and that a phobia can also be learned from family or friends who have one. With snakes, the readiness to learn this fear described above probably makes it easier to acquire.

Whatever started it, avoidance keeps it alive: each escape brings relief, and the relief teaches you that escaping was necessary.

How common is ophidiophobia?

There is no reliable worldwide figure for the fear of snakes alone. Large surveys usually count specific phobias as a group. What we do know:

• across 25 surveys in 22 countries, about 7.4% of adults have had a specific phobia at some point in their life, usually starting in childhood (Wardenaar et al., Psychological Medicine, 2017);
• fears and phobias of heights and of animals are the most common kinds (Eaton et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2018);
• in a Swedish population study, animal phobias, defined there as spiders and snakes, were found in 12.1% of women and 3.3% of men at the time of the survey (Fredrikson et al., Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1996).

Do I have ophidiophobia? A quick self-check

This is not a test and it cannot diagnose anything. It follows the summary of the DSM-5-TR criteria for specific phobia in the MSD Manual, and only helps you decide whether to talk to a professional.

Tick what applies to you

I have felt a marked fear or anxiety about snakes for six months or more. Seeing a snake, even in a picture or on screen, almost always triggers that fear straight away. I avoid places, activities or images where I might meet a snake, or I get through them with intense fear. I feel the fear is out of proportion to the actual danger where I live. The fear or the avoidance causes me real distress or gets in the way of my daily life, holidays, work or social life.

This is not a diagnosis. If you ticked most of these boxes, or if the fear bothers you, talk to your doctor or a therapist trained in CBT. Only a professional can assess a phobia.

How to overcome ophidiophobia

The best-supported way to overcome a fear of snakes is gradual exposure, the core of cognitive behavioural therapy: you approach snakes in small, safe steps, from drawings and photos to videos and harmless snakes behind glass, stay long enough to learn that the feared outcome doesn’t happen, and repeat. According to the MSD Manual, exposure therapy helps around 85% of people with a specific phobia.

For snake phobia specifically, a randomised trial with 30 patients compared a three-hour one-session treatment with a therapist and a guided internet self-help programme: at follow-up, 100% of those who completed the one-session treatment and 90% of those who completed the internet programme were clinically improved on a real approach test (Andersson et al., Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 2013).

Our step-by-step guide explains how to build a fear ladder safely, how long to stay, how often to practise and when to get help: How to overcome the fear of snakes.

Can virtual reality help with a fear of snakes?

Virtual reality lets you meet a snake at the distance and pace you choose, with an exit at any moment and no real animal involved. For specific phobias in general, a meta-analysis of 30 randomised trials found VR exposure as effective as real-life exposure (Carl et al., Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2019). The honest caveat: those trials are mostly about heights, spiders and flying, not snakes. More in Why virtual reality works for phobias.