Hello Friends,
Fear, as we all can relate to is an unpleasant emotion which a human has.
When a person perceives a threat, danger which can cause harm or pain is called Fear.
Almost everyone is grieved with some or the other fear.
The intensity of fear may vary to be mild, medium, intense.
When fear of a particular thing is or becomes intense which results in unpleasant reaction or behaviour, it is Phobia.
To a person with a phobia, the fear is so strong that may cause the person to worry about, feel upset, or in cases avoid the things or situations they fear.
Previous bad experiences or trauma may also cause a person to fear about a particular thing or situation.
People may be scared of water, height, snakes, dogs, insects, ghosts or may have a social phobia which involves fear of speaking in public, presenting your point in a meeting etc.
One of the weirdest fears on the rise is the fear of clowns. As contradictory as it may sound, but yes, people are scared of clowns.
Clowns, as we generally think of, are funny people or comic performers wearing funny clothes, coloured face who intend to entertain people or make them laugh. But, few of the people report clowns to be not funny.
Reportedly, few people have developed a phobia of clowns. Coulrophobia is the term for the intense fear or phobia of clowns.
People usually find clowns performing in circus funny and might not be scared of them but imagine seeing a clown standing in the woods of the forest. It might send chills down the spine. This is the ‘uncanny’ effect meaning something which is familiar as well as unfamiliar at the same time.
Fear of the clowns may be attributed to various factors.
Clowns are people may be with large sized shoes, oversized clothes, exaggerated nose, painted face, strangely coloured hair.
While everyone is familiar with wearing shoes, clothes, hair but may not be familiar with someone wearing oversized clothes, shoes, brightly painted face, exaggerated nose. This familiarity as well as unfamiliarity is uncanny and may cause uneasiness and hence the fear.
Clowns have their face brightly painted with either smile or frown. we usually related to someone with smiling face to be happy and the one with a frown to be sad. People usually cannot relate to the feeling of being happy or sad all the time. Also, people cannot understand their actual feelings or read their feelings behind the masked face. This is what sends a sense of discomfort causing fear.
Also, one of the factors towards the increase in the fear of clowns may be the association of the clown with horror in the movies.
People can develop the fear of clowns as people observe them to be dangerous in the movies.
Percentage of the population developing this fear is steadily on the rise.
Clowns are intended to be fun. So, just think of them just to be people with makeup on to make everyone laugh.
