Let’s take a look at the very common fear of spiders to explain classical conditioning. If you encounter a spider, there may not be anything inherently scary about the spider itself. Only a small number of spider species are venomous, and really big spiders are usually found in tropical jungles. Your fear of the spider is probably borne from an unfounded fear – perhaps something you watched when you were a child that exaggeratedly depicted dangerous spiders. In fact, the most common phobias develop at an average age of 8 years. Inaccurate as though that was, that thing you watched created the association between spiders and a threat to your life. This is what’s known as classical conditioning. You may also be familiar with the story of Pavlov’s dog, where Ivan Pavlov observed that his dog eventually associated the sound of a bell ringing to the promise of food, whether or not the food was actually present.
Similarly, you associate spiders with the potential of danger, whether or not the spider is actually dangerous. This is how classical conditioning can lead to a phobia.