Scientists have discovered why we are terrified of clowns: ScienceAlert

Are you afraid of clowns? You’re not alone. Coulrophobia, or the fear of clowns, is a widely recognized phenomenon.

Studies indicate that this fear is present in many, both adults and children different cultures. Yet it is not well understood due to a lack of focused research.

Although numerous possible explanations for the phobia had been put forward academic literatureno studies had specifically examined its origins.

So we went exploring the reasons why people are afraid of clowns, and to understand the psychology behind this. We also wanted to investigate how common a fear of clowns is in adults and look at the severity of the fear in those who reported it.

To do this, we developed a psychometric questionnaire to assess the prevalence and severity of coulrophobia. The fear of clowns questionnaire was supplemented by an international sample of 987 people between the ages of 18 and 77.

More than half of respondents (53.5 percent) said they were at least to some extent afraid of clowns, while 5 percent said they were “extremely afraid” of them.

Interestingly, this percentage reporting an extreme fear of clowns is slightly higher than those reported for many other phobiassuch as animals (3.8 percent), blood/injection/injuries (3.0 percent), heights (2.8 percent), standing water or weather conditions (2.3 percent), closed spaces (2.2 percent) and flying (1.3 percent).

We also found that women are more afraid of clowns than men. The reason for this difference is not clear, but it echoes research results on other phobias such as the fear of snakes and spiders.

We also found that coulrophobia decreases with age, which again is consistent with research into other fears.

Origin of this fear

Our next step was to investigate the origins of people’s fear of clowns. A follow-up questionnaire was administered to the 53.5 percent who reported at least some level of clown fear.

This new set of questions addressed eight plausible explanations for the origins of this fear, as follows:

1. A creepy or disturbing feeling caused by clowns’ makeup that makes them look not quite human. A similar response is sometimes seen with dolls or mannequins.
2. The exaggerated facial features of clowns give an immediate sense of menace.
3. Clown makeup hides emotional signals and creates insecurity.
4. The color of clown makeup reminds us of death, infection or blood injury and evokes disgust or avoidance.
5. The unpredictable behavior of clowns makes us feel uncomfortable.
6. The fear of clowns was learned from family members.
7. Negative depictions of clowns in popular culture.
8. A terrifying experience with a clown.

Intriguingly, we found that the final explanation, namely that we had had a frightening personal experience with a clown, had the lowest level of agreement. This indicates that life experience alone is not a sufficient explanation for why people fear it.

In contrast, negative depictions of clowns in popular culture contributed much more strongly to coulrophobia.

This is understandable because some of the most prominent clowns in books and films are designed to be scary – such as Pennywise, the creepy clown from Stephen King’s 1986 novel. It. (This character was last seen in two films in 2017 And 2019starring Bill Skarsgård.)

However, some people are afraid of Ronald McDonald, the fast food chain’s mascot, and he isn’t supposed to scare you. This suggests that there may be something more fundamental about the way clowns look that upsets people.

The strongest factor we identified was hidden emotional cues, suggesting that many people’s fear of clowns stems from not being able to see their facial expressions due to their makeup.

We cannot see their ‘real’ faces and therefore cannot understand their emotional intentions.

So, for example, we don’t know whether they have a frown or a furrowed brow, which would indicate anger. Without the ability to detect what a clown is thinking or what he might do next, some of us feel tense when we are around them.

This research has provided some new insights into why people are afraid of clowns – but more questions remain.

For example, if makeup that masks emotions causes fear, does people who have their faces painted like animals also create the same kind of effect? Or is there something more specific about the makeup of clowns that drives this fear? This is now the focus of our further research.

Sophie ScoreyPhD researcher, University of South Wales; James GrevillePsychology teacher, University of South Wales; Phillip Tysonassociate professor of psychology, University of South WalesAnd Shakiela DaviesLecturer in clinical psychology and mental health, University of South Wales

This article is republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A version of this article was first published in March 2023.