Scientists have found the cause of the “fear of clowns” in some people

Scientists from the School of Psychology and Therapeutic Research at the University of South Wales in the UK have figured out why people are afraid of clowns.

Sophie Scorehi, Shakeela Davis, James Greville and Phillip Tyson, researchers who published the study in International Journal of Mental Healthquantified coulrophobiascientific name given to fear clowns.

That’s how it was in school

After creating a psychometric survey called the “Fear of Fear Inventory” clowns”, a team from Wales sent out their questions to nearly 1,000 people aged 18 to 77 and found that more than half of those surveyed “said they were afraid clowns at least to some extent.”

According to the data obtained, the main reason coulrophobia stems from a perceived inability to read the emotions on their faces due to their makeup, causing “an eerie or unsettling feeling due to clown makeup that makes them seem less than human”.

They also developed well-known explanations for fear phobia. clownssuggesting that “make-up color reminds us of death, infection or blood trauma and causes disgust or avoidance” that “unpredictable” behavior clowns scares people and also what people can find out coulrophobia from family members or from popular culture.

extreme people

At the same time, 53.5% of respondents indicated that they are somewhat afraid clownsonly 5% of the people who answered the questionnaire said they were “very afraid”.

This incidence appears to have increased among people who had other phobias.

Interestingly, the team also “found that women are more afraid of clowns than men,” and although they are not entirely sure why, a similar pattern is seen with other phobias.

“We also found that coulrophobia decreases with age, the Welsh team wrote, again consistent with studies of other fears.

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