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Since our last article, the WTF subreddit’s followers have grown from around 700,000 to its current 7.1 million. It continues to be a resource of photos and videos showing the bizarre side of life. You’re about to see still images that may induce goosebumps.
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This growing list suggests one possible theory: humans may be innately drawn to disturbing images. According to media scholars Annie Lang and Bridget Rubenking, there is an evolutionary explanation.
“An attentional bias toward disgust—no matter how aversive—would better equip humans to avoid harmful substances.”
As psychology professor Frank McAndrew explains, creepy images and things are about “the uncertainty of threat.” Our gut sounds the alarm about possible danger, but the signals aren’t clear enough to urge immediate action.
“So much of [what is creepy] is about wanting to be able to predict what’s going to happen, and that’s why creepy people creep us out – because they’re unpredictable. We find it hard to know what they’re going to do next,” McAndrew said.
Some experts draw a line between being scared and creeped out. As philosophy professor Dr. David Livingstone Smith told ABC Australia, "Creepiness is an attitude of simultaneous fascination and repulsion."
"When we encounter something creepy, we're drawn to it at the same time as wanting to get away from it," he explains.
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Despite their longstanding involvement in many children’s parties, clowns often fall under the creepy category for many people. This fear is called coulrophobia, which affects 1 in 10 adults.
Studies have shown that the clown’s painted face distorts the person’s real appearance, stirring feelings of distrust. Dr. Smith concurs.
“Their fixed facial expression is mask-like — it belies that characteristic of a living breathing human being,” he explains.
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A 2016 study published in the New Ideas In Psychology journal theorized that men are more likely to be perceived as creepy because “males are simply more violent and physically threatening to more people.”
The study likewise theorized that women are more likely to perceive a sexual threat from someone classified as “creepy.”
