"In evolutionary science, we talk about 'super-natural stimuli'—these are stimuli—often created by humans—that exaggerate stimuli that we evolved to respond to in certain ways," Dr. Geher explained to Bored Panda in an email.
"For instance, we evolved to be grossed out by things like blood and guts (as they could carry dangerous pathogens). Horror movies take advantage of this evolved tendency by providing more blood and guts in a span of 10 minutes than a normal human would have experienced in a lifetime under ancestral conditions," he said.
"Large entities often can be thought of similarly. If a small wild carnivore might be a little scary, then how about, through the magic of Hollywood and the like, we create Godzilla—hundreds of thousands of times the size of an actual reptile. Godzilla is a lot of things—one of them being a super-normal stimulus. Large carnivores tend be scarier than small carnivores. And this effect is simply amplified with gigantic carnivores. Super-normal stimuli mess with our minds and emotions this way."
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Dr. Geher noted that if you're afraid of abnormally large things, you're not alone, and it's not unnatural. "If you’re not scared of that large grizzly bear coming at you, then you’re likely to die a Darwinian death," he pointed out that being afraid of some things can be advantageous.
"We evolved to be sensitive to important details of stimuli in our environments. Stimuli that stand out—especially those that strike us as larger than normal—tap into our evolved tendency to survey our environments carefully. After all, big things, all factors considered, are more likely to threaten our safety relative to small things," Dr. Geher said.
"So if you’re afraid of big things, no need to consider your fear as abnormal. Quite to the contrary, in many cases, this fear may well be evolutionarily adaptive—and it just may save your life one day."
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Specific phobias—such as megalophobia—are intense and irrational fears of something that poses little or no actual danger, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Here’s the thing, though: even if you know that your fear of big things is irrational, you can still get anxious and scared when you’re around them. Even just thinking about them, in some cases, can trigger those feelings.
According to Verywell Mind, some of the things that people with megalophobia are scared of include:
- Airplanes;
- Blimps;
- Buildings;
- Buses;
- Construction equipment;
- Elephants;
- Enormous trees, like sequoias or redwoods.
Other things that can potentially scare people who have a phobia of large things include:
- Hills and mountains;
- Large bodies of water;
- Ships;
- Sculptures;
- Statues;
- Trains;
- Whales.
Some individuals can be frightened by a very wide range of massive things. However, others can be scared of very specific objects.
Generally, aside from intense feelings of fear and increased anxiety, people with megalophobia can also get dizzy, lightheaded, feel nauseous, have an increased heart rate, feel short of breath, and want to run away when they’re around very large things.
Verywell Mind notes that, actually, it’s quite normal to have “some level of fear or apprehension” when you’re around things that are so big that they seem threatening or overwhelming.
The difference for individuals suffering from megalophobia, however, is that the fear they feel is much more severe. What’s more, they might not feel the awe that large things evoke that the average person might.
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One factor that may lead to this fear might be the abnormal size of animals or sculptures, for example. If the size is atypical, it can make the person scared. Another factor is that legends or stories in the media can make individuals scared of large things, such as giant squid, sharks, big snakes, etc.
Living with a phobia such as this can be incredibly restrictive because it means that you miss out on potentially great opportunities to travel, see incredible things, and meet new people. Typically, psychotherapy is the preferred method of treatment for megalophobia, specifically, cognitive behavioral therapy (aka CBT) and exposure therapy.
