For me, yes. Of course, it depends on the size of the spider. But I'm scared of ant-sized spiders and not of ants.
Actually, as a kid, my worst nightmare (no horror movie has ever come close to that) was when I heard of a type of spider that disguises as an ant by putting its two front legs as "antennas".
I'm not sure how it can fool other ants, but the sheer idea terrified me. Thinking I could have an ant on me, not thinking about it, and then it would put its "antennas" down and "become" a spider.. Sheer horror, I tell you.
Of course, people aren't all afraid of the same things. Some are afraid only of the big spiders, so size matters more than number of legs to them. Some are afraid of the hairy ones, so that's probably what scares them. Some people mentioned the eyes, although spiders have various amount of eyes depending on species, so it's not constant among spiders either. Some people are also afraid of the long legs, and might be afraid of insects who, despite having only 6 legs, have them just as long as some spiders.
I am not scared of "spiders" portrayed with six or four legs. I've fought them as bosses and not even thought of them as spiders until people told me they were supposed to be. So for me, the number of legs is definitely the main thing.
Phoenix14 said:
they have eight legs, but so do scorpions and I like scorpions not scared of them at all.
Scorpions also have claws though. They also have a tail that could be interpreted by our brain as an extra appendage as well, differentiating them from spiders. I'm not afraid of scorpions, either, for the record.
Most of the time, I'm terrified by spiders at first sight. But sometimes, especially with the tiny ones, there is some sort of doubt. When I count the legs, the doubt can turn into relief or sheer panic depending if the answer is 6 or 8. So yeah, as far as I'm concerned, it's the number of legs. Couldn't tell you why, but that does it for me.
This being said, other animals photoshopped to have eight legs (for instance a cat) don't scare me if the legs are still cat legs (so going under the body rather than up to the sides then down). If the photoshop is with spider-like legs though, it does terrify me, even if it's otherwise a kitty or a puppy or whatever.
Weird thing: I'm still scared of spiders when I only see them partially, provided they're recognizable as spiders. So I guess I would be scared if I only saw part of a 4-legged "spider" boss in a way that didn't allow me to guess it doesn't have 8 legs. Picture of faces of spiders don't terrify me, they only scare me because I know it's a spider and I picture the rest of it.
