This may be an unpopular opinion in regards to tarantulas and the tarantula community, but I promise I have the research to back it up! If you’ve seen my YouTube channel about tarantulas, especially the ones where I interact with Spidey or Blinky, you will notice that yes, I actually TALK TO MY TARANTULAS! And, I am not ashamed of it. You shouldn’t be, either!

I recently read an article that was able to prove that yes, talking to your pets makes you smarter. While the research done by Harvard University had a lot to do with communication with dogs and cats with their humans, and being able to create understanding and some form of communication with them, I still think this could apply to pets that maybe can’t respond – like tarantulas.

In the article, it stated:

Studies have shown that people who have conversations with their pets considered to be of higher intelligence. Anthropomorphizing is the act of attributing human characteristics and purposes to inanimate objects, animals, plants, etc.

Like I needed any more encouragement to baby talk my spiders and pretend that they know and understand me!

Some tarantula owners, myself included, get a bit of flack for giving our tarantulas names and treating them like they are cats or dogs. I completely disagree obviously, and this quote by Nicholas Epley, a professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago, made me feel a lot better:

“Historically, anthropomorphizing has been treated as a sign of childishness or stupidity, but it’s actually a natural byproduct of the tendency that makes humans uniquely smart on this planet,”.

I have long accepted that the reason I speak to my tarantulas is pretty much solely for my own benefit, and because it comes naturally to me when I see an animal I love – even if it’s a spider. While cats and dogs may be able to acknowledge the tone in our voice, be familiar with how we sound and smell, I figure that tarantulas cannot unless they are reacting to the vibrations they sense in the air. But either way, I look at anthropomorphizing as a way to exercise my creativity and passion regardless of how silly it looks. And I’m happy to have finally found more positive information to support this behavior!