Phobias

Phobias

Tetraphobia

Tetraphobia (from Greek - tetras, "four" and - phobos, "fear" ) is the practice of avoiding instances of the number 4. It is a superstition most common in East Asian and Southeast Asian regions such as China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

The quick version of why the number four is unlucky is that it sounds just like the word for death (//shi). Sometime a really, really long time ago, someone figured this out and probably had his goats die on April 4th. Then, he started telling everyone how four = death and that they all need to watch out because nasty things will happen. Some people believed him, it spread, and the rest is history.

Examples 24 can become nishi, aka double death ()42 (the answer to life, the universe, and everything!) can become shini, aka death or to death ()45 can be shigo, or after death ()49 (though a bit of a stretch) can become shinu made kurushimu, aka To suffer until death.

Where Did It Come From?

Everything from Japan seems to have come from China in one way or another, and unlucky number four is no exception. In fact, China spread this superstition around to many other Asian countries as well basically any Asian country who borrowed kanji or created their own language with Chinese as a base. Its quite fascinating.

CoulrophobiaCoulrophobia: An exaggerated or abnormal fear of clowns. Children are most often affected but teenagers and adults can occasionally be affected as well. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Coulrophobia is available below.

Symptoms of Coulrophobia

Abnormal fear of clownsFeeling of panicFeeling of terrorFeeling of dreadRapid heartbeat

Widespread Fear of Clowns

Why are we, as a society, collectively afraid of clowns?

There are two commonly accepted schools of thought. One is that the fear is based in a negative personal experience with a clown at a young age. The second theory is that mass media has created a hype surrounding evil clowns such that even children who are not personally exposed to clowns are trained to dislike or fear them.

Coulrophobia Statistics

Coulrophobia is found to be much more prevalent in children, and in fact the majority of children are at least made uncomfortable by clowns (a 2008 University of Sheffield study discovered this when looking to redecorate a childrens hospital ward needless to say, clowns were out of the question after that).The fear is actually so prevalent among children that clowns who visit hospitals will usually wait in a childs doorway and only enter the room if invited to do so by the young patient.