Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

StranglesMcWhiskey t1_j6wmpm9 wrote

The majority of people that claim to be afraid of clowns are just jumping on the bandwagon. Where's that in the study.

4

gamesexposed t1_j6wnecs wrote

The awkward part is when your coulrophobia and coulrophilia get together, put on some Barry White, and make one hell of a neuron soup baby

4

neuralbeans t1_j6wqxwb wrote

How do you determine the causes of a phobia?

3

1234WhoAreYou t1_j71g3bb wrote

Yeah, I mean I hated clowns from being very young. Mum took me to a circus and I remember thinking the creepy guy with the weird face was not trustworthy. Then I saw him throwing buckets of water on people, except the water turned out to be confetti. I decided I didn’t want anything thrown on me by a person with a crazy face and screamed until Mum took me out. Must have been maybe three or four years old.

It’s not hard to understand why some unpredictable, weird looking person would be scary to kids. You can learn that they’re not scary as you get older but that initial strong emotional response will linger on some level because early childhood experiences are formative.

3

Sillyviking t1_j6y6f3r wrote

I don't fear clowns, but generally I find them creepy.

2

AutoModerator t1_j6wjlqk wrote

Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

noma887 t1_j6y0syb wrote

asking the hard questions...

1

dvdmaven t1_j6zn42o wrote

I have an acquaintance who is a semi-professional clown. She refuses to accept that some people (me included) do not find clowns funny or entertaining. I saw her working a crowd at a street fair and about 70% of the kids got very upset when she approached, didn't slow her down.

1

katergator717 t1_j6xwf9k wrote

those are such obvious reasons

why did we have to waste money on a study?

0

elderboon123 t1_j6ykeuu wrote

science is about verifying assumptions, not blindly accepting them. often reality is at odds with our intuitive perception of it

6