Fear can be learned by observing others in scary situations. If you think about it, it’s probably a useful ability. If a child is walking through a garden with their parent, and the parent sees a poisonous snake on the path ahead and jumps back or hesitates, or maybe even screams, you would hope that the child would take notice of that and become fearful or at the very least more weary of their surroundings.
In 2017, Dunne and Askew used pictures of faces (expressions) and animals to create observational associations of dangerous versus safe environments.
Children (aged 6-10) were shown faces (either happy or scared) along with a picture of a novel animal. This allowed them to form an association between which animals should be feared and which should not be feared.
Overall, the experiment determined that after having viewed the paired images. Children reported being more afraid and wanting to avoid animals that were previously paired with the scared images. In addition, when then paired with happy faces, the previously scary animals did not elicit the same fear response as before.
Dunne, G., & Askew, C. (2018). Vicarious learning and reduction of fear in children via adult and child models. Emotion, 18(4), 528-535. doi:http://dx.doi.org.cat1.lib.trentu.ca:8080/10.1037/emo0000341
Children are quite fearful. The above study can be used to understand how to counteract children’s fears using yourself as a model for fearless behaviour. A good example of this is going on a plane. If a parent is afraid of flying their child is likely going to be fearful of the experience as well because their mom or dad has demonstrated to them that flying is something to be fearful of. Whereas, a parent who frames the experience of flying as an adventure, or something fun, is more likely to have a child display behaviours consistent with excitement, or contentment.
The Apple doesn't Fall Far 