When I was a kid, I was deathly afraid of bees. Or, more specifically, I was afraid of bee stings. This is somewhat interesting, because I didn't get stung by a bee until I was in seventh grade...but I was afraid of bees long before that happened. Just the fact that my parents told me about this particular insect, that could stick a needle out of its butt on command and use it to pierce my flesh, was enough to make me run in terror whenever one flew near me.

I'm not alone in this. I used to know people in college who would get antsy and run to evade a bee if they encountered one outside. And yet these same people had no trouble going home to their dorms and, the same day, proceed to binge drink copious amounts of beer.

I'm willing to bet the sting of your typical hangover is far worse and prolonged than the sting of any honeybee. If you're allergic to bee strings, you have a legitimate reason to be afraid, but outside of that, it's pretty irrational behavior. The difference is probably control; as long as you're doing it to yourself, the pain that comes with vomiting up after too much liquor is a choice we make, and so we accept it.

That, and the fear lingers. There's some deeply Pavlovian about a fear of bees for a lot of people, and even in adulthood, we never end up unlearning it.