Are you terrified of clowns? You aren’t alone. Coulrophobia, or the worry of clowns, is a extensively acknowledged phenomenon. Research point out this worry is current amongst each adults and youngsters in lots of totally different cultures. But it isn’t effectively understood because of an absence of centered analysis.
Whereas quite a few attainable explanations of the phobia had been put ahead in educational literature, no research had particularly investigated its origins. So we got down to uncover the explanations individuals are frightened by clowns, and to know the psychology behind this. We additionally needed to discover how frequent the worry of clowns is in adults and to have a look at the severity of the worry in those that reported it.
To do that, we devised a psychometric questionnaire to evaluate the prevalence and severity of coulrophobia. The Worry of Clowns Questionnaire was accomplished by a world pattern of 987 folks aged between 18 and 77.
Greater than half the respondents (53.5%) mentioned they had been terrified of clowns not less than to a point, with 5% saying they had been “extraordinarily afraid” of them. Curiously, this proportion reporting an excessive worry of clowns is barely increased than these reported for a lot of different phobias, reminiscent of animals (3.8%), blood/injection/accidents (3.0%), heights (2.8%), nonetheless water or climate occasions (2.3%), closed areas (2.2%), and flying (1.3%).
We additionally discovered that ladies are extra afraid of clowns than males. The rationale for this distinction just isn’t clear, but it surely echoes analysis findings on different phobias such because the worry of snakes and spiders. We additionally found coulrophobia decreases with age, which once more matches up with analysis into different fears.
Origins of this worry
Our subsequent step was to discover the origins of individuals’s worry of clowns. A follow-up questionnaire was given to the 53.5% who had reported not less than a point of clown worry. This new set of questions associated to eight believable explanations for the origins of this worry, as follows:
- An eerie or unsettling feeling because of clowns’ make-up making them look not-quite-human. An analogous response is typically seen with dolls or mannequins.
- Clowns’ exaggerated facial options convey a direct sense of risk.
- Clown make-up hides emotional indicators and creates uncertainty.
- The color of clown make-up reminds us of dying, an infection or blood damage, and evokes disgust or avoidance.
- Clowns’ unpredictable behaviour makes us uncomfortable.
- Worry of clowns has been discovered from relations.
- Destructive portrayals of clowns in common tradition.
- A daunting expertise with a clown.
Intriguingly, we discovered the ultimate clarification, of getting had a scary private expertise with a clown, had the bottom stage of settlement. This means that life expertise alone just isn’t a enough clarification for why individuals are afraid of them.
In distinction, adverse portrayals of clowns in common tradition was a a lot stronger contributing issue in the direction of coulrophobia. That is comprehensible since among the most distinguished clowns in books and movies are designed to be scary – reminiscent of Pennywise, the creepy clown from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It. (This character most not too long ago featured in two movies in 2017 and 2019, with Invoice Skarsgård within the starring function.)
Nevertheless, some individuals are afraid of Ronald McDonald, the quick meals chain mascot, and he isn’t meant to scare you. This implies there may be one thing extra elementary about the best way clowns look that unsettles folks.
In reality the strongest issue we recognized was hidden emotional indicators, suggesting that for many individuals, a worry of clowns stems from not having the ability to see their facial expressions because of their make-up. We can’t see their “true” faces and subsequently can’t perceive their emotional intent. So, for instance, we don’t know whether or not they have a frown or a furrowed forehead, which might point out anger. Not having the ability to detect what a clown is pondering or what they may do subsequent makes a few of us on edge once we are round them.
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This analysis has offered some new insights into why individuals are afraid of clowns – but extra questions stay. As an illustration, if make-up which masks feelings causes worry, do individuals who have their faces painted as animals additionally create the identical sort of impact? Or is there one thing extra explicit concerning the make-up of clowns that drives this worry? That is now the main target of our continued analysis.
The next essay is reprinted with permission from 
