Editing Neophobia (section)

==Examples==
[[Norway rats]] and [[house mice]] are thought to have evolved increased levels of neophobia as they became [[Commensalism|commensal]] with humans because humans were routinely devising new methods (e.g., [[mousetrap]]s) to eradicate them.<ref name="MeddockOsborn1968">{{cite journal | vauthors = Meddock TD, Osborn DR| title = Neophobia in wild and laboratory mice| journal = Psychonomic Science | volume = 12 | issue = 5 | pages = 223| date = May 1968 |issn=0033-3131 | doi=10.3758/BF03331280 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Neophobia is also a common finding in aging animals, although [[apathy]] could also explain, or contribute to explain, the lack of exploratory drive systematically observed in aging. Researchers argued that the lack of exploratory drive was likely due neurophysiologically to the dysfunction of neural pathways connected to the [[prefrontal cortex]] observed during aging.<ref name="pmid7601365">{{cite journal |vauthors=Lalonde R, Badescu R |title=Exploratory drive, frontal lobe function and adipsia in aging |journal=Gerontology |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=134–44 |year=1995 |pmid=7601365 |doi= 10.1159/000213674}}</ref>

[[Robert Anton Wilson]] theorized in his book ''[[Prometheus Rising]]'' that neophobia is instinctual in people after they begin to raise children. Wilson's views on neophobia are mostly negative, believing that it is the reason human culture and ideas do not advance as quickly as our technology. His model includes an idea from [[Thomas Kuhn]]'s ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]'', which is that new ideas, however well proven and evident, are implemented only when the generations who consider them "new" die and are replaced by generations who consider the ideas accepted and old.