There’s a loooooootttt of research and discussion about why clowns are scary on a basically universal level.
my gf's mom is a bonafide retired clown, did it for a living/went to school for it the whole nine yards. she collected clown dolls and memorabilia for a long time but was downsizing for a move and tasked us with selling some of it online last year. it was all so creepy and niche that we were thrilled when she figured out how to use Facebook marketplace herself and took the operation over. she is crazy as hell but she is fantastic.
The evil clown entry on Wikipedia goes into a lot of the general origins of clowns in horror or as unsettling instead of joyful, and it links to at least one study that goes into it a bit more. Honestly just poking around the general wiki page can be a pretty big rabbit hole for different aspects of it. A lot of it seems to stem from a kind of primal unease about exaggerated features/lack of trust in costumed figures, plus the fact that they’re often first encountered in childhood when the unknown is especially upsetting. Add in associations with loud noises or surprise and it’s super easy to form a negative opinion without even being truly conscious of why.
Talking of irrational fears mine is swimming too far away from the beach and being swept into the ocean.
That is most definitely a legitimate fear lol. I will not swim somewhere if I can’t see the bottom. We don’t know what the hell is down there. I have a hard time having fun on bots in the ocean because all I can think of is “if we sink I’m fucking dead.” Also get freaked out when I ride a roller coaster that is only hip secured, and not over the shoulder. If anyone has ridden Rip Ride Rocket at Universal, I 100% thought I was going to slide out the back of my seat on that vertical ascent to the first drop
Funnily enough, I’m not huge on drop stuff like tower of terror due to the different falling sensation on those type of rides, especially if I can see how high I am. But I’m a pilot as a profession. The brain is weird
Being swept out to sea is less an irrational fear than an unlikely one. I also hate rollercoasters and drop rides, but it’s not really out of fear but HATING the falling sensation. I don’t mind purely fast rides or only spinning ones, even if they’re high up.
I’m the same way. I don’t mind that sensation on roller coasters/those rides that just flip you around, but drop rides freak me out
It’s one of the worst physical sensations I can think of that isn’t technically pain, and I’d honestly rather feel certain pains than go through it.
The biggest surprise I had in life related to these fears was that skydiving was physically easier on the body than riding a rollercoaster. It just feels like there’s a huge fan on you as you quickly approach the ground
I'm going to finally watch the first part to this for the first time tonight with some extra Google Play credits I have kicking around from surveys :P. Not sure what kept me from watching for this long, but all of the promotion for Chapter 2 has really sold me. Love that Bill Hader and James McAvoy are going to be in this so I want to know what the heck is going on when it comes out!
Yeah I can't do those either which is unfortunate because I'll never be able to go on that Guardians of the Galaxy ride haha
Also yeah I fucking hate rollercoasters. Not due to speed, though, I just hate heights and have this irrational fear of steel rollercoasters because you can see all of the metal tracks winding below you and I just picture my body bouncing off each of those if something went wrong. Weirdly, wooden rollercoasters don't freak me out quite as much, just because I don't see all of those extra windy tracks below my feet. And I realize that those are still probably more dangerous than the actual steel ones these days heh.