1. Preparedness is the idea that evolution has prepared humans to more easily fear and learn to associate certain threats based on what endangered our ancestors' survival, like snakes, spiders, fire, and deep water. 2. Seligman's theory of preparedness supports classical conditioning and explains why some phobias are more common than others, like a fear of thunder developed from ancestors who feared it. 3. Preparedness suggests we are less likely to fear modern dangers because our fears evolved based on ancestral threats, so we don't as easily develop phobias of new threats like knives.