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 totally different cultures. But it’s not properly understood on account of an absence of targeted analysis.
Whereas quite a few attainable 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 persons are frightened by clowns, and to grasp the psychology behind this. We additionally needed 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 Concern of Clowns Questionnaire was accomplished by a global pattern of 987 folks aged between 18 and 77.
Greater than half the respondents (53.5 p.c) mentioned they have been frightened of clowns a minimum of to some extent, with 5 p.c saying they have been “extremely afraid” of them.
Apparently, this share reporting an excessive concern of clowns is barely larger than these reported for a lot of different phobias, equivalent to animals (3.8 p.c), blood/injection/accidents (3.0 p.c), heights (2.8 p.c), nonetheless water or climate occasions (2.3 p.c), closed areas (2.2 p.c), and flying (1.3 p.c).
We additionally discovered that girls are extra afraid of clowns than males. The rationale for this distinction is just not 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 p.c who had reported a minimum of 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 on account of clowns’ make-up making them look not-quite-human. An identical 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 loss of life, an infection or blood harm, and evokes disgust or avoidance.
- Clowns’ unpredictable behaviour makes us uncomfortable.
- Concern of clowns has been discovered from members of the family.
- Damaging portrayals of clowns in fashionable 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 stage of settlement. This means that life expertise alone is just not a enough rationalization for why persons are afraid of them.
In distinction, unfavourable portrayals of clowns in fashionable tradition was a a lot stronger contributing issue in the direction of coulrophobia.
That is comprehensible since a few of the most distinguished clowns in books and movies are designed to be scary – equivalent 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 position.)
Nonetheless, some persons are afraid of Ronald McDonald, the quick meals chain mascot, and he isn’t meant to scare you. This means there is likely to be one thing extra elementary about the best way clowns look that unsettles folks.
In actual fact 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 on account of 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 pondering or what they may do subsequent makes a few of us on edge once we are round them.
This analysis has offered some new insights into why persons 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 concerning the make-up of clowns that drives this concern? That is now the main focus 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 Scientific Psychology and Psychological Well being, College of South Wales
This text is republished from The Dialog underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the unique article.
A model of this text was first revealed in March 2023.
