And while pondering on all of the different circus acts in the last article, TPP’s mind also wandered off onto the topic of people who don’t like the circus… well more specifically ones that are afraid of clowns, which is a staple act for any circus.
This pondering then went down the path of how often a movie or TV show has a character say they are afraid of clowns… often enough for TPP to even know it happens in movies and TV!
So TPP did a little digging into the fear of clowns. First thing that came out of the digging was that this fear is common enough to be given a name, coulrophobia.
Further digging led to a great article on Scientific American titled “This Is Why We’re Afraid of Clowns“. In the article they do some research into where people get this fear from. Their conclusion was:
In fact the strongest factor we identified was hidden emotional signals, suggesting that for many people, a fear of clowns stems from not being able to see their facial expressions due to their make-up. We cannot see their “true” faces and therefore cannot understand their emotional intent. So, for example, we don’t know whether they have a frown or a furrowed brow, which would indicate anger. Not being able to detect what a clown is thinking or what they might do next makes some of us on edge when we are around them.
Scientific American
Your homework today is to ponder on circus clowns and what image does it conjure up for you – is it a one of fun, laughs and happiness or do you have coulrophobia?
Ponder away!
