Are you afraid of clowns? You’re not alone. Coulrophobia, or the fear of clowns, is a widely recognized phenomenon. Studies indicate that this fear is present in adults and children in many different cultures. Yet it is not well understood due to a lack of focused research.
While many possible explanations for the phobia had been put forward in academic literatureno studies had specifically investigated its origins. So we set off to explore why people are afraid of clowns and understand the psychology behind it. We also wanted to explore the frequency of fear of clowns in adults and examine the severity of the fear in those who reported it.
To do this, we developed a psychometric questionnaire to assess the prevalence and severity of coulrophobia. Fear of Clowns Quiz was supplemented by an international sample of 987 people aged 18 to 77.
More than half of respondents (53.5%) said they were afraid of clowns at least to some degree, with 5% saying they were “extremely afraid”. Interestingly, this percentage reporting an extreme fear of clowns is slightly higher than that those reported for many other phobiassuch as animals (3.8%), blood/injection/injury (3.0%), heights (2.8%), calm waters or weather events (2.3%), confined spaces (2.2%) and theft (1.3%).
We also found that women are more afraid of clowns than men. The reason for this difference is unclear, but it echoes search results on other phobias such as fear of snakes and spiders. We also found that coulrophobia decreases with age, again consistent with research on other fears.
Origins of this fear
Our next step was to explore the origins of people’s fear of clowns. A follow-up questionnaire was given to the 53.5% who reported at least some degree of clown fear. This new set of questions focused on eight plausible explanations for the origins of this fear, as follows:
- A strange or disturbing feeling due to the makeup of the clowns which makes them look not quite human. A similar response is sometimes observed with dolls or mannequins.
- The exaggerated facial features of clowns convey a direct sense of threat.
- Clown makeup masks emotional signals and creates uncertainty.
- The color of clown makeup reminds us of death, blood infection or injury, and evokes disgust or avoidance.
- The unpredictable behavior of the clowns makes us uncomfortable.
- The fear of clowns was learned from family members.
- Negative representations of clowns in popular culture.
- A scary experience with a clown.
Curiously, we found the final explanation, having had a frightening personal experience with a clown, to have the lowest level of agreement. This indicates that life experience alone is not a sufficient explanation for why people are afraid of them.
In contrast, negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture were a much larger contributing factor to coulrophobia. It’s understandable since some of the most prominent clowns in books and movies are designed to be scary – like Pennywise, the creepy clown from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It. 2017 And 2019with Bill Skarsgård in the lead role.)
However, some people are afraid of Ronald McDonald, the fast food chain’s mascot, and he is not meant to scare you. This suggests that there might be something more basic about the appearance of clowns that bothers people.
In fact, the most important factor we identified was hidden emotional cues, suggesting that for many people, the fear of clowns stems from the fact that they cannot see their facial expressions due to their makeup. We cannot see their “real” faces and therefore cannot understand their emotional intent. So, for example, we don’t know if they have a frown or a furrowed forehead, which would indicate anger. Not being able to sense what a clown is thinking or what they might do next makes some of us nervous around them.
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This research has provided new insights into why people are afraid of clowns – but other questions remain. For example, if makeup that masks emotions causes fear, do people who have their faces painted like animals also create the same kind of effect? Or is there something more particular in the composition of the clowns that feeds this fear? This is now the object of our continuous research.
The following essay is reproduced with permission from 
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