Fear of clowns and the Uncanny Valley
Posted on July 9, 2007
Filed Under General |
When it comes to phobias, the fear of clowns is definitely one that confuses most people. How can anyone be afraid of a character whose only purpose of existence is to make us laugh? Many children and adults today are afraid of clowns or experience anxiety upon seeing one. What could the cause of Coulrophobia, the medical term for fear of clowns, be?
It turns out that what freaks us out is the very idea of one altering their appearance using makeup to look totally different but very close to human. Think of zombies and how scared of their appearance we are. They look very close to human but zombies are sufficiently different to disturb our mind. Scientists, and especially those working in humanoid robotics, make use of a graph that plots a person’s emotional response versus the degree of an object’s appearance similarity to human form.. This plot is shown in the figure below.
The problem with zombies and clowns essentially lies with the part of the graph labeled as the Uncanny Valley. This is the region populated by objects that look almost human but are not human. Evolution has equipped modern humans with the ability to really notice small details in other people’s appearance. Billions of neurons and years of unconscious effort goes into distinguishing and reading faces. In other words, our brain is good at noticing the smallest details on human faces. When these small details are altered in a non-human way, i.e., large red nose, then we really notice it and our defense mechanism that says something is really wrong kicks in. In some cases, the response is strong and results intense fear.
Fear of clowns is the result of them looking almost human but not exactly with the details that give a clown his distinct identity the main reason why so many children and adults fear them. Of course, it doesn’t help that there are several movies portraying clowns as psychopathic killers out to get us. But you can always turn off the TV but you can’t turn off natural instincts.
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