16 mars 2023
Some are afraid of heights, others of spiders or snakes… But there are less classic phobias, such as that of clowns. How to explain that what is supposed to make people laugh causes anxiety for some people?
« You want your boat, Georgie? Pennywise asked. You don’t seem to care that much he added lifting it up with a smile. Who hasn’t had nightmares of the evil clown following reading Stephen King’s “It”?
But beyond the horror novel, did you know that clown phobia, also called Coulrophobia, really exists. People who suffer from it, whether adults or children, can experience extreme and irrational reactions (rapid breathing and heart rate, intense feeling of terror, profuse sweating, nausea, etc.) when they see clowns, in flesh and os or even in photo or video.
In new research, recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, scientists from the University of South Wales assessed data from an international survey of 1,000 adult participants from 64 countries. They found that regarding 5% of respondents said they had ” extremely scared » des clowns.
So how to explain this phobia?
Clowns’ exaggerated facial features and emotion-masking makeup are the main reasons people fear them, according to the study. Negative representations of clowns in popular culture (That therefore, but also sad ballad where the Joker….), would not be unrelated to the case.
Another trigger for the phobia, the unpredictability of the behavior of these characters between cries, hysterical laughter… The authors also cite the fact that these characters do not appear entirely as humans, which is aggravated by the make-up which completely covers the face. skin.
The researchers also suspect that the redness on the makeup, reminiscent of illness and contagion, might play a role. But according to them, it is not a single element, but rather a juxtaposition of factors that might trigger Coulrophobia.
Difficult to treat
Even if this fear seems real, most learned societies do not seem to recognize it as a phobia in its own right. There are no pre-established criteria for diagnosing it and no specific treatment. But if the phobia is interfering with your quality of life, exposure therapy can help.
