The fear of clowns is a well-known phobia that many people struggle with, even before clowns started wandering the streets well before Halloween.
The technical term for this is coulrophobia. This is by no means a new discovery, although more people identify with this phobia in more recent decades.
According to recent research, a majority of the fear that comes from clowns is the excessive makeup and the brightly colored hair that brings the most fear, because of this, a person can remain unknown while dressed like this. The colorful makeup also deconstructs the face, leaving the person dressed as a clown with a completely new identity.
Not only do clowns look outrageously different from an average person, clowns are able to break social-norms while dressed as this character. A mask allows a person to impose a new set of communicative rules.
People who have this phobia can cause a person to experience panic, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating and nausea when interacting with a clown.
Although this fear predominately develops in childhood, many adults experience this phobia as well.
In 2008, a study done by the University of Sheffield found that children in hospitals do not find artwork involving clowns soothing.
Clowns have a history of being feared, and the recent sightings have done nothing to change that.
