Never Laugh At Or Mock People's Fear, Or People's Fear Responses, No Matter How Irrational Or Ridiculous

Never laugh at or mock people's fear, or people's fear responses, no matter how irrational or ridiculous you think the fear is or how silly or ridiculous you think someone's fear response is.

If you think it's ridiculous that someone is afraid of taxadermied animals, or ducks, or small house spiders, because "those things can't actually hurt anyone so why do they scream or startle when they see one?" Guess what? They didn't choose to be afraid of those things, they didn't choose to react by screaming or startling when they see one.

Chances are they'd absolutely love to get rid of those fears and would in a heart beat if they could. You're not helping at all by making them feel ridiculous.

Nobody likes being afraid. If you don't have any irrational fears or phobias, I'm genuinely happy for you because you're extremely lucky. But understand that people with irrational fears or phobias do not choose them and definitely do not enjoy having them.

And you should never instigate someone's fear just because you think their fear response is funny. It doesn't matter how funny you think your co-worker sounds when she sees a rat, or how funny you think your cousin looks when he sees a taxadermied animal, it's never okay to put another person in distress for your own amusement. Making another person distressed for your own amusement is the behavior of bullies and abusers.

It's one thing to jump out from behind a corner and shout "boo!" at your friend that you're positive you have that kind of relationship with them and you're positive that they're okay with it and find it funny too, but it's another thing entirely to take a spider you found in the storage room and shove it in your co-worker's face because you think them screaming and begging you to get it away from them is funny.

Do you think they find it funny or amusing at all? Have you bothered to check at all if they're okay with being tormented for your amusement? Why do you think it's okay to put them in distress for your own amusement?