Not long ago, a client sat across from me, visibly embarrassed. “I know it sounds silly,” she said, “but I’m terrified of clowns.” She paused. “I mean, properly terrified. Even seeing one in a cartoon gives me that tight chest, sweaty hands feeling.”
While that might sound strange to some people, I hear stories like this all the time, and my client is far from alone. Coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) is surprisingly common, and lately, it’s back in the spotlight.
Why Clowns Still Haunt Us
In June 2025, Simon Cowell visibly leapt from his chair during a clown-themed act on America’s Got Talent. The group, fittingly called The Phobias, played on his very real fear. “I hate clowns so much,” he said afterwards, “but that was brilliant.”
Clowns have been appearing everywhere, not just in circuses, but also all over social media. On TikTok, creepy clown prank videos rack up millions of views, and horror films are also doubling down, too.
And it’s not new either. Stephen King’s Pennywise terrified audiences in both the original It miniseries and its modern remakes. More recently, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and the graphic film Terrifier took the concept to new extremes. According to The Guardian, nearly 100 clown-themed horror films were released in the 2010s [1], and to this day, clowns continue to provoke a visceral, primal reaction.
In 2025 alone, we’ve had or are expecting titles like Clown in a Cornfield, Vampire Clown, and The Forest Clown to hit cinemas at some point.
And it’s not just fiction.In 2016, the so-called “killer clown” craze swept across the UK and the US. People dressed as clowns began appearing near schools, woods and homes and were often carrying weapons. That year, McDonald’s quietly retired Ronald McDonald from public appearances. Even professional clowns reported a sharp drop in bookings, and Clowns International and other performers began campaigning to reclaim the image of the ‘happy clown’.
So, for many, coulrophobia is a real issue, and it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to make sense to others for it to matter to you.
“Weird” Phobias Are More Common Than You Think
A YouGov poll found that nearly one in five young adults in the UK have some level of fear of clowns [2], and in a 2022 global study by the University of South Wales, more than half of the participants reported unease around clowns. [3]
Whenever someone tells me, “This is going to sound stupid…” I remind them that fear doesn’t care about logic; it only cares about association.
Why Clowns Freak Us Out
Clowns typically wear thick makeup that conceals their genuine facial expressions; their movements are exaggerated and unpredictable, and their laughter can suddenly shift into screaming or crying. In short, they make it hard for our brains to predict what’s coming next, and that uncertainty makes our nervous systems nervous.
Psychologists refer to this effect as the uncanny valley, where something appears human but not quite [4], and we’re wired to feel discomfort when something is almost familiar but off just enough to trigger our threat detection system. For someone who’s had a frightening experience involving a clown or seen too many horror scenes with them as a child, that discomfort can become hardwired as a fear response.
It’s about how your brain has encoded the experience. I always say that fear doesn’t follow reason. It follows emotional imprinting.
The Real Root of the Fear
In my book, Face Your Fears, I talk about how phobias often start with one core moment, one trigger. Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes it’s not.
For example, someone might not be afraid of clowns per se, but rather the shock of a loud laugh, the smear of face paint, or the sensation of being watched. These sensory cues can be encoded deep in the brain, especially when experienced in a heightened emotional state.
Your amygdala, the brain’s fear centre, creates a link: “That sensation = danger,” and once that anchor is set, it fires automatically. Your body goes into fight, flight or freeze, even if the rational part of your brain knows there’s no real danger, and phobias in this sense are conditioned responses, not character flaws.
How to Change the Response
Regardless of how you obtained your fear of clowns, the brain can also unlearn those connections. It’s not about facing your fear until it goes away; it’s about rewiring the pattern that created it.
The seven-step process I use in my clinic is called the Integrated Change System (ICS).
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Recognise: First, identify what specifically scares you. Is it the laugh? The makeup? The surprise? You can’t change what you don’t define.
- Relax: You can’t change anything while your nervous system is in panic. Breathing and grounding are essential starting points.
- Reward: Your fear is trying to do something useful — protect you, give you control, keep you safe. Together, we determine what that “job” is and find healthier ways to meet it.
- Recipe: All fear follows a pattern — thoughts, images, sounds, physical reactions. Once we understand the sequence, we can scramble it.
- Release: We then work to let go of the emotional charge from past experiences using techniques like visualisation or guided eye movements.
- Recondition: We install a new response. This might include creating a physical or mental anchor — a touch, word or image — that cues calm instead of panic.
- Realise: We mentally rehearse a new reality where you stay calm and confident, building familiarity and trust in the new pattern.
This process offers a gentle but powerful way to reset how your brain interprets those old triggers.
You’re Not Broken
If you’re afraid of clowns, that doesn’t make you weak or broken. It simply means that your brain has created something that no longer serves you, and what’s been learned can be unlearned. I’ve worked with phobias of every kind. The one thing they all have in common? They’re not irrational; they’re just misunderstood.
Sources:
[1] The Guardian: Rise of clown horror films – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/oct/31/why-are-we-so-afraid-of-clowns
[2] YouGov UK survey on clown fear (2016): https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2016/10/07/fear-clowns
[3] University of South Wales study on coulrophobia (2022): https://www.southwales.ac.uk/news/news-2022/university-of-south-wales-research-reveals-why-people-are-scared-of-clowns/
[4] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4392592/