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Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia
INTRODUCTION: Fear of clowns or coulrophobia is a little understood phenomenon despite studies indicating that it has a high prevalence in the general population. There have been no previous investigations into the aetiology of this fear, although several plausible hypotheses from the wider literatu...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9931735/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36818074 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466 |
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author | Tyson, Philip John Davies, Shakiela K. Scorey, Sophie Greville, William James |
author_facet | Tyson, Philip John Davies, Shakiela K. Scorey, Sophie Greville, William James |
author_sort | Tyson, Philip John |
collection | PubMed |
description | INTRODUCTION: Fear of clowns or coulrophobia is a little understood phenomenon despite studies indicating that it has a high prevalence in the general population. There have been no previous investigations into the aetiology of this fear, although several plausible hypotheses from the wider literature can be generated; the fear stems from media portrayals of scary clowns, from the unusual physical appearance or the unpredictable behaviour displayed, or it derives from an unpleasant personal experience. METHODS: The current study reviews the literature in this area and also pilots a new questionnaire (Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire; OFCQ) to explore the causes of the fear of clowns in a sample of 528 participants who reported such a fear. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that uncertainty of harmful intent, media influences and unpredictability of behaviour play an important role in the origins of coulrophobia. There are also multiple features of clown appearance which produce a negative experiential state and a sense of a direct threat. DISCUSSION: We conclude that the origins of clown fear are multi-factorial and primarily relate to aspects of their facial appearance, their behaviour, and how they have been portrayed in the media. Surprisingly, fear derived from personal experience was not one of our main findings. Further research is focused on looking at associations between the level of fear and each aetiological category. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9931735 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99317352023-02-17 Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia Tyson, Philip John Davies, Shakiela K. Scorey, Sophie Greville, William James Front Psychol Psychology INTRODUCTION: Fear of clowns or coulrophobia is a little understood phenomenon despite studies indicating that it has a high prevalence in the general population. There have been no previous investigations into the aetiology of this fear, although several plausible hypotheses from the wider literature can be generated; the fear stems from media portrayals of scary clowns, from the unusual physical appearance or the unpredictable behaviour displayed, or it derives from an unpleasant personal experience. METHODS: The current study reviews the literature in this area and also pilots a new questionnaire (Origin of Fear of Clowns Questionnaire; OFCQ) to explore the causes of the fear of clowns in a sample of 528 participants who reported such a fear. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that uncertainty of harmful intent, media influences and unpredictability of behaviour play an important role in the origins of coulrophobia. There are also multiple features of clown appearance which produce a negative experiential state and a sense of a direct threat. DISCUSSION: We conclude that the origins of clown fear are multi-factorial and primarily relate to aspects of their facial appearance, their behaviour, and how they have been portrayed in the media. Surprisingly, fear derived from personal experience was not one of our main findings. Further research is focused on looking at associations between the level of fear and each aetiological category. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9931735/ /pubmed/36818074 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466 Text en Copyright © 2023 Tyson, Davies, Scorey and Greville. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Tyson, Philip John Davies, Shakiela K. Scorey, Sophie Greville, William James Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
title | Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
title_full | Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
title_fullStr | Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
title_full_unstemmed | Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
title_short | Fear of clowns: An investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
title_sort | fear of clowns: an investigation into the aetiology of coulrophobia |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9931735/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36818074 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1109466 |
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