"Fear of Clowns: No Laughing Matter"

[hummingwolf]

Although there are no official statistics, some experts believe that as many as one in seven people experience some level of coulrophobia, as fear of clowns is clinically known. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea and overall feelings of dread. Link via mind_hacks.

To go along with this story, the perfect link is: Creepy Clown. Aieee!

Also via mind_hacks: Cognitive science café.

This might creep out some Angel fans: Wolfram Research. There's nothing terribly creepy about the site, once you get past the wolf and the ram.

Comments

[coffeegrace.livejournal.com]

Eek! Clowns usually freak me out. Mostly because of the movie "It". They're not as scary as sloths and robots, but still pretty freaky.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Sloths are creepy? I had no idea!

[coffeegrace.livejournal.com]

Oh, sooooo creepy! I could go on and on about all the reasons I am disgusted and creeped out by sloths, but I'll spare you. I'll just say, the first time I saw a sloth (that I remember) was in highschool science class. It was on a video about the rain forests, and it showed a clip of a sloth swimming. Seeing the creepy way that it moved is what started my slothophobia.

[missprune.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I guess I am not really afraid of clowns, but find them creepy. Clowny rag dolls, on the other hand, can be sweet. My daughter had a terrifying dream of a scary clown at age three and has never forgotten it. Needless to say, clowns remain a negative image for her.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

I've never been afraid of clowns, as far as I can remember. But when I was 6 years old and went to the circus, I was really disappointed. I'd thought clowns were supposed to be funny, and none of them made me laugh at all!