A creature afraid of the light

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." "” H.P. Lovecraft

One example of this is the universal fear of the dark. We cannot sense what is there, and so we try to either avoid dark spaces, or light them up. That brings me to this:

What if the opposite were true for a different species?
Picture a creature that has developed acute infrared vision. It's nocturnal, and nighttime is still somewhat dark for it, but that's OK - it knows that's there. During the daytime on its homeworld, its senses are flooded. It's the opposite of not seeing anything - this creature is afraid of the vast whiteness, instead of blackness. It's afraid of the light.

A) Is this feasible for an intelligent race? Is there something I'm not considering in this scenario, is there some characteristic of evolution that would present this from happening, etc?

B) Bonus: If such a creature could exist and evolve intelligence, how would it "see" in the light? We can shine light into darkness, but if the concern is sensory overload, what would help them cope?

Edit: Chose Youstay Igo's answer because, while all answers addressed the problem, Youstay had the least specific conditions required with an equal solution. Instead of changing the planet, etc he changed the explanation, allowing more creativity when building a world.

posted about 8 years ago

Zxyrra‭

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