For more effort I do not remember the title of a movie in which a baby crawls unscathed on the scaffolding of a skyscraper hundreds of meters high. But well, the fact is that the baby did not show fear at all. Have you ever wondered Why are babies not afraid of heights?
Nothing has to do how high it can be. If we place a baby a few months on the edge of a bed, a changing table or a table will not feel fear. He has not yet developed a sense of insecurity nor understands that being at a certain distance from the ground can be dangerous. That feeling will appear when you start moving.
A matter of visual perception and movement
When the baby starts crawling he changes his proprioception, that is, the individual's visual perception of their own movement.
The evolution that occurs between not being afraid of heights and starting to have them is precisely that change that occurs when the baby begins to move on its own. He begins to feel scared when he learns to crawl.
When he starts practicing and perfecting the crawling, the baby becomes more aware of his own movements and what happens around (where he moves, where there is risk, where not ...) But as I say it is a training, although we want to avoid it, in his exploration of the world he will hit himself, he will get stuck, he will fall, and it is also part of the process.
According to researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, who have conducted a study on the origin of fear of heights, the act of impulse teaches the brain to be aware to what is in your peripheral field of vision to adjust your balance.
That little gesture of pushing forward to move forward It makes you more cautious when it comes to moving.
its field of vision is closely related with all this. A newborn baby sees at a distance of 20-25 centimeters while his viewing angle is 40 degrees, when that of adults is 180. During the first year his vision will develop and his field of vision will increase, taking more and more notion of its surroundings and therefore also of danger.
Scientists believe that this could be the key to why a person who looks out the window of an airplane does not feel vertigo, because their peripheral vision is limited and is the same almost all the time, unlike a helicopter, for example, where that person could get dizzy since the vision is wider and there is much more movement.
Let's say it's a combination of increased field of vision plus movement. The baby who sees limited and moves little does not feel fear, while as his field of vision grows, he begins to move, and feels fear.
Baby guinea pigs
Scientists have performed several tests with babies. One was to introduce the little ones who did not crawl in small kartings that moved with controls similar to those of electronic games. After three weeks, the babies were placed on the edge of an area just over a meter high.
When placed in the face of danger and having previously experienced the sensation of driving in the go-karts, his heartbeat increased, suggesting they felt fear, while those who did not crawl and had not been exposed to the movement did not register changes in their beats.
Another of the tests can be seen in the following video. On an elevated surface divided into two parts (one glazed and the other not, simulating an edge) two babies were placed: one that was just beginning to crawl and another an experienced crawler that even stands up. The first does not hesitate to cross the glazed surface to reach his mother who is waiting for the other outside, while the second is more cautious and prefers to go through the painted part, a safer area.
Like the rest of the fears in children, the fear of heights is also a matter of evolution. It is not an innate fear, not even fear of spiders or snakes. They are acquired as they grow and develop new perceptions and skills.
