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Fear, as unpleasant as it is to experience, is (usually) your friend.
Basically, it is a primal and protective emotion that alerts you to dangers and threats. It sparks physical and emotional responses in you, however, these can vary a lot between individuals.
For instance, one person might instinctively flee, another might choose to stand their ground and fight. Someone else might freeze entirely. Or they might resort to fawning to avoid the threat.
When your fear response works correctly, it helps you avoid risks to your health and life. But when it works improperly, you might feel overwhelmed because the fear you feel is not proportional to the threat you face.
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Getting to grips with why something is scary isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Sometimes, even seemingly ordinary things can seem utterly terrifying.
According to Dr Coltan Scrivner, a behavioural scientist and horror expert at Aarhus University in Denmark and Arizona State University in the US, creepiness is a common human experience.
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In short, creepiness is very relatable. It’s a common ground topic between you and most other people around the world.
Scrivner told BBC Bitesize that creepiness is “a feeling that I think almost anybody can resonate with.”
“If you say you’re creeped out, most people will know exactly what you mean,” he said.
Early research into the psychological nature of creepiness suggested that we find things creepy because they are often ambiguously threatening. In other words, creepiness is linked to mixed messages about danger.
So, for example, a clown might fall into the gray area of creepiness, unlike being chased by someone dangerous who is very clearly posing a threat.
Of course, what you find creepy and unsettling will depend on your cultural background. And yet, some things are more disturbing than others. For instance, many people find clowns and dolls to be super creepy.
There’s this paradox where something that is meant to be innocent might actually be malevolent.
Meanwhile, you might also find something like a mannequin, doll, or clown creepy because of the uncanny valley phenomenon, where the object seems almost human, but not quite.
Their proportions might be slightly off, while their faces don’t quite manage to fully mimic what a real person looks like. So, your mind interprets these things as potentially threatening.
