Why are people so scared of clowns?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

Just wondering if I have missed something. Is it all to do with the clown from It? Or were there other scary clowns in movies or books?

I'm 50 and a half

IT, the clown in poltergeist and the fact you don’t know who or what is hiding behind the mask/face paint

In the middle ages wrongdoers had their ears and noses cut off and were paraded down the street, presumably bleeding to death. Hence the phrase cut off your nose to spite your face. This is the origin of clowns. If that is not sinister I don't know what is. Oh, and I hate holes, the new iPhone, and am male..

And also see the video on Twitter of the guy robbing McDonald's in a clown mask at knifepoint

Middle Ages 'mummers' were also quite sinister.

My fear stemmed from Enid Blyton. Evil men painting a happy face on themselves before doing sinister stuff. It stuck.

It’s the singular expression that I hate. So clowns, dolls, masks all freak me

My DC hates clowns, fancy dress, some dolls and Hallowe'en decor. He's never fancy dressed except for an army-style overalls outfit. He has never worn facepaint. I have two dolls from my childhood who are quite pleasant, but he will not go near them because of the holes in their head where the hair comes through. He's been known to go ballistic because of the aubergine on a moussaka; there wasn't even any on his plate! I wonder if that was to do with the holes thing.

When he was 3, we went to a theme park and he visibly lept with fright then hid behind me when fancy dress animals came around the corner. He did surprise me once at hugging a person in a bear costume, but that was OK because it was "real"... it was quite a cuddly teddy bear look though

He has dyspraxia, and is awaiting assessment for ASD. He certainly socially masks well at school with his issues exploding out at home, and I do wonder if he has to manually read a lot of social cues and struggles when that is impeded by fancy dress, make-up etc hence his strong revulsion.

I did manage to watch The Joker though. Just looked off screen for a few scenes. Bloody brilliant film.

I agree with PP that it is likely the "uncanny valley" effect.

I actually have a similar aversion to overly made up faces and the filters people put on their photos.

I am not afraid exactly but it makes me feel a bit worried/uncomfortable. Human, but not quite...

Does anyone know a man who is afraid of clowns? Not being goady, it just always seems to be women.

My husband was as a child. He’s OK about them now.

Daniel Radcliffe, Johnny Depp, and P Diddy are all said to have the fear

My dd is terrified of clowns, always has been. Now that she’s older (11) she says it’s because she can’t read their intentions, they’re unpredictable and their faces don’t move to help you work out what they’re going to do.

I went to a talk on this recently and apparently clowns, puppets and dolls can trigger the human amygdala (the part of our brain that relates to our fear response) because immediately we recognise them as human-ish but not really human, therefore the brain processes this as something 'wrong' and thus a threat. The rest of the thought/logic process kicks in later on to establish that it's 'just' a clown, puppet or doll but the initial response of fear and revulsion can remain.

Fascinating stuff

It says so on Google so must be true. I do know a few men in real life who are afraid of clowns

American horror story. Cult. You'd be scared of them too if you watch it!

(It's brilliant though!)

I am not scared of them as such but I dont like them as PP have said its the fact that you cant see their real faces so its hard to 'see' what they are thinking.
But for me I feel the same a people that ware a lot of make up , esp dark eye shadow.
While I am by no means scared of it I don't like talking to people that have dark sunglasses on , even more so if they are the mirrored type , again because I can not see them properly its hard to understand them .

Has anyone seen the film FX ? about a special effects guy set up to look like some one has murdered some one else ? ( or something along them lines ) even though there are a lot of masks in the film I like it as you also get to see the person behind the mask .

John Wayne Gacey

My brother hates clowns, he's really scared of them he's 25 now but when he was a toddler he's bedroom was done with this print bedding/border/curtains etc and he thinks that's what has done it

I'm scared of happy clowns.

I used to see a clown regularly as a child who turned out to be a paedophile.

He never touched me inappropriately but the thought was enough to put me off them for life (I have vivid memories of sitting on his knees etc)

I like scary clowns though.

I wonder if it is more a female thing because in general we are better at reading mood/intentions on peoples faces?

Interesting stuff! As a kid myself, I just found circus-type clowns unfunny and wasn't interested. I didn't see the nineties IT tv show though.

Horrified by that child killing Gacey freak, I hadn't heard of him before this thread.

It’s because they fall into the Uncanny Valley.

Iv always been frightened of them. It's something to do with the fact that they are covered on makeup and I can't see their real face. Plus they don't speak.
We were in Jersey once and there was a festival and a parade. I could see these stilt walkers coming towards us, lots of miming and silent interaction with the public. They wore lots of makeup too.
We were sitting outside a bar and I had to go and lock myself in the loo. I was terrified.