Are you frightened of clowns? You aren’t alone. Coulrophobia, or the concern of clowns, is a broadly acknowledged phenomenon.
Research point out this concern is current amongst each adults and youngsters in lots of completely different cultures. But it’s not effectively understood resulting from a scarcity of targeted analysis.
Whereas quite a few doable explanations of the phobia had been put ahead in tutorial literature, no research had particularly investigated its origins.
So we got down to uncover the explanations individuals are frightened by clowns, and to grasp the psychology behind this. We additionally wished to discover how widespread the concern of clowns is in adults and to have a look at the severity of the concern 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 %) stated they have been frightened of clowns no less than to a point, with 5 % saying they have been “extremely afraid” of them.
Apparently, this proportion reporting an excessive concern of clowns is barely increased than these reported for a lot of different phobias, similar to 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 girls are extra afraid of clowns than males. The rationale for this distinction will not be clear, but it surely echoes analysis findings on different phobias such because the concern of snakes and spiders.
We additionally found coulrophobia decreases with age, which once more matches up with analysis into different fears.
Origins of this concern
Our subsequent step was to discover the origins of individuals’s concern of clowns. A follow-up questionnaire was given to the 53.5 % who had reported no less than a point of clown concern.
This new set of questions associated to eight believable explanations for the origins of this concern, as follows:
- An eerie or unsettling feeling resulting from clowns’ make-up making them look not-quite-human. The same response is usually 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 demise, an infection or blood damage, and evokes disgust or avoidance.
- Clowns’ unpredictable behaviour makes us uncomfortable.
- Worry of clowns has been discovered from members of the family.
- Destructive portrayals of clowns in well-liked tradition.
- A daunting expertise with a clown.
Intriguingly, we discovered the ultimate rationalization, of getting had a scary private expertise with a clown, had the bottom degree of settlement. This means that life expertise alone will not be a adequate rationalization for why individuals are afraid of them.
In distinction, detrimental portrayals of clowns in well-liked tradition was a a lot stronger contributing issue in direction of coulrophobia.
That is comprehensible since a few of the most distinguished clowns in books and movies are designed to be scary – similar to 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.)
Nonetheless, some individuals are afraid of Ronald McDonald, the quick meals chain mascot, and he’s not meant to scare you. This implies there could be one thing extra basic about the best way clowns look that unsettles folks.
Actually the strongest issue we recognized was hidden emotional indicators, suggesting that for many individuals, a concern of clowns stems from not having the ability to see their facial expressions resulting from their make-up.
We can’t see their “true” faces and subsequently can’t perceive their emotional intent.
So, for instance, we do not 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 considering or what they may do subsequent makes a few of us on edge after we are round them.
This analysis has supplied some new insights into why individuals are afraid of clowns – but extra questions stay.
As an example, if make-up which masks feelings causes concern, do individuals who have their faces painted as animals additionally create the identical sort of impact? Or is there one thing extra explicit in regards to the make-up of clowns that drives this concern? That is now the main target of our continued analysis.
Sophie Scorey, PhD Researcher, College of South Wales; James Greville, Lecturer in Psychology, College of South Wales; Philip Tyson, Affiliate Professor of Psychology, College of South Wales, and Shakiela Davies, Lecturer in Medical Psychology and Psychological Well being, College of South Wales
This text is republished from The Dialog below a Artistic Commons license. Learn the unique article.
A model of this text was first revealed in March 2023.
