Hatred of clowns

Posted by R. Berg on December 25, 2001

In Reply to: Hatred of clowns posted by ESC on December 25, 2001

: : I do not like clowns! They give the creeps. I am 45 years old - you think I would have outgrown this by now, but I haven't. The odd thing is that when I went into a room full of people, nearly 40% of them agreed that they didn't like them either. Anybody have any information as to why people tend to dislike clowns?

: They're big and loud and they have painted-on faces so you can't tell their true expressions. For starters, that's pretty creepy. Merry Christmas.

Hatred and fear are different things, of course, but fear of clowns is a recognized phobia. The phobia site linked below (if link is missing, use www.phobialist.com/ notes.html) has some interesting things to say (go rather far down the page) about the common aversion to clowns.

• Clown creeps

• fear of cotton ESC 12/25/01
  • Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns. Bruce Kahl 12/25/01
    • Coulrophobia R. Berg 12/25/01
      • Coulrophobia Bruce Kahl 12/26/01