Clowns

Why do people fear clowns? I think they are cute creatures, especially the ones that haunt my head. 

I have never been afraid of clowns. I think they are funny in their big shoes and red noses. I loved it when they would squirt the flower juice in peoples faces or when 20 of them would pile out of a small car.

According to some phobia studies, and estimated 20 to 30% of the entire population
find clowns scary, or at least a little unsettling.

 Coulrophobia,

coul ro pho bi a [kool-ruh-foh-bee-uh]

noun

an abnormal fear of clowns

Symptoms of Coulrophobia consist of:

Feelings of

Panic

Terror

Dread

Your heart will start racing

You may have shortness of breath

You may start trembling

You will have an intense fear

You will have an overwhelming desire to flee

And

You will take extreme measures to avoid clowns.

A study conducted by the University of Sheffield found that children did not like clown decor in the hospital of physician office.

So it's probably not a good idea to decorate your childs bedrooms with a clown theme.

Clowns are 'uncanny'

"The subject of the 'uncanny' is...

undoubtedly related to what is frightening

-to what arouses dread and horror;

equally certainly, too, the word is not always used in a clearly definable sense,

so that it tends to coincide with what excites fear in general."

-Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny"

Clowns are often portrayed as emotionally unstable or even psychotic in many forms

of media. The idea of a "killer clown" has been used in horror films and novels

for decades, and photos of serial killer John Wayne Gacy as a clown have been published many times.

Scary clowns in movies go as far back as the silent movie days when Lou Chaney Sr played a clown in the 1928 movie, Laugh Clown Laugh.

People are usually frightened by things which are wrong in some way, wrong in a disturbingly unfamiliar way.

Or does it have something to do with evolution? We have evolved to choose a mate that is healthy, and weird scary clowns may set off the same set of warning bells that told our ancestors to stay away from unfit partners.

According to Rami Nader, a psychologist and director of the North Shore Stress and Anxiety Clinic in North Vancouver, B.C., the psychological roots of the phobia may be traced to the fact that clowns are basically wearing funny disguises while displaying artificial emotions that perhaps hide their true feelings.

If your afraid of clowns your not alone: anti-clown celebrities include

P. Diddy

Johnny Depp

Carol Burnett 

Anthony Bourdain

So your not alone...