The Grammys are this Sunday and one of my favorite artists,
St. Vincent, is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album. The first track on her album is entitled "Rattlesnake" (which is
awesome), but its lyrics may not represent snakes in a good way. This song is
about the fear and intensity of being isolated in the wilderness for the first
time. She wrote the song after an experience in the American Southwest where
she wandered alone through the desert one night and thought she heard a
rattlesnake’s rattle. Based on the song’s lyrics and music composition, this was
a frightening experience for her. Would this song have a different title if rattlesnakes
were not feared by people?
Follow
the power lines back from the road
No one around so I take off my clothes
Am I the only one in the only world?
No one around so I take off my clothes
Am I the only one in the only world?
I see the snake holes dotted in the sand
As if the Seurat painted the Rio Grande
Am I the only the one in the only world?
Sweating,
sweating no one is behind me
Sweating, sweating no one will ever find me
Sweating, sweating no one will ever find me
The
only sound out here is my own breath
And my feet stuttering to make a path
Am I the only one in the only world?
And my feet stuttering to make a path
Am I the only one in the only world?
Is
that the wind finally picking up?
Is that a rattle sounding from the brush?
I'm not the only one in the only world
Is that a rattle sounding from the brush?
I'm not the only one in the only world
Running,
running, running rattle behind me
Running, running, no one will ever find me
Running, running, running rattle behind me
Running, running, no one will ever find me
Running, running, running rattle behind me
Running,
running, no one will ever find me
Sweating,
sweating, sweating, rattle behind me
Running,
running, no one will ever find me
Sweating,
sweating, sweating, rattle behind me
Running,
running, no one will ever find me
A broad theme of the song centers on a fear of snakes. Is
this fear justified? Long long ago, snakes were in fact a predator of early man
(and still prey on some hunter-gatherers today!)
and so we hold an evolutionary reason for why we would be afraid of snakes. In
the song, she becomes frightened after hearing the rattling sound of a
rattlesnake. A lot of studies have focused on fear responses related to seeing
to snake, but not hearing the sound of a snake. Is our response to hearing a
snake different from when we see one?
 |
| Rattlesnakes are good at hiding in the grass. Our ability to quickly detect snakes is important. Photo by B.J. Putman |
Past studies have shown that humans
possess the keen ability to quickly detect hidden snakes, and this has led to the
Snake Detection Theory which states
that our strong need to detect snakes in the past has led to human’s crazy snake-finding
skills which are no longer necessary for our current survival (Soares and Esteves 2014; Van Strien et al. 2014). However, our ability to find
snakes quickly does not explain the psychological fear many people have towards
snakes (Tierney and Connolly 2013). Some scientists believe that
the fear of snakes is transmitted from mother (or father) to the child – it is
a learned
response. In support of this, both human and primate infants show greater fear
of snake-like objects only after observing fearful reactions to the objects by
their mothers (Mineka et al. 1984, Gerull and Rapee 2002).
 |
| Our fear of snakes stems largely from cultural learning. The Snakes In Hats Tumblr is trying to change people's perception of snakes, cause how can you NOT love animals wearing tiny hats? Adorable. |
As past studies have shown, the fear that occurs after seeing a snake is likely culturally learned (unjustified), but the fear that occurs after hearing rattling may be justified. Little to no studies have been done on human responses to rattlesnake rattling, but research on other animals suggests that hearing a snake can indeed be startling, but differs from seeing a snake.
As an example (and plug for my own study system), ground squirrels respond fearfully to rattlesnake rattling. They can even discriminate between more and less dangerous rattlesnakes just based on sound. Larger more dangerous snakes produce rattling with higher amplitudes and lower frequencies – louder and lower in pitch – than smaller snakes. In addition, warmer more dangerous rattlesnakes produce louder rattling with faster click rates than colder less dangerous rattlesnakes (Rowe and Owings 1996). In one study, squirrels tail flagged and stood alert more following playbacks of recorded rattling sounds from more dangerous snakes (Swaisgood et al. 2003).
 |
| Both warmer snakes and larger snakes have higher amplitude rattling - they are very loud! Taken from Rowe and Owings 1996. |
Dan Blumstein, researcher at UCLA, has been studying what he
calls – The Sound of Fear (dun dun duuuun). He’s looked into the acoustic
qualities of sounds associated with fear from the alarm calls and screams of mammals
to the soundtracks of Hollywood films (like the music during the classic shower
scene in Psycho). His team has found that sounds that make us
aroused/jumpy/uneasy contain more noise than neutral sounds. What does that
mean exactly? Well, noise doesn’t sound nice because it contains non-linearities,
or sound wave distortions. Noise is more complex and more atonal than sounds we
consider soothing. We may find noise so disturbing because its acoustic characteristics
are more variable and somewhat unpredictable, making us less likely to habituate
to them (Blesdoe and Blumstein 2014). Marmots (Blumstein and Récapet 2009), Great-tailed Grackles, (Slaughter
et al. 2013), and White-crowned Sparrows (Blesdoe and Blumstein 2014) respond “fearfully” to noise.
The rattle is currently used by rattlesnakes for defense – warning potential predators of the snake’s dangerousness (see previous blog post). It makes sense that the sound of rattling be associated with fear to deter other animals from harming the threatened rattlesnake. Indeed, the rattling of a rattlesnake is noisy and atonal like screams and alarm calls. Its distinct acoustic qualities may justly explain our fear after hearing but not seeing a rattlesnake. The Rattlesnake song itself is jarring because of its use of dissonant and atonal sounds. In the end, we see that St. Vincent was likely expressing a true emotional response to a scary sound, which is also a conserved evolutionary response across distantly related species.
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