The Uncanny Valley of Creepy Clowns

All over the world people are dressing as scary and creepy clowns. It is an odd thing to do and probably the most terrifying craze of 2016. In the United Kingdom, there have been scary sighting of “killer clowns” parading about with machetes and knives in Dundee, Gloucester, Liverpool, Caernarfon in North Wales, London, Norwich, Sheffield, East Sussex and Suffolk.

In the United States, even though police have been dealing with clowns for years, the latest surge in scary clown sightings has greatly increased. There have been dozens of sightings of creepy clowns along the east coast. Nocturnal clowns have been spotted in at least six states, most recently in Georgia where two young boys ran in fear of their lives while waiting for the morning school bus.

Creepy clowns are not new. Stephen King’s, bestselling author of horror stories wrote a 1986 novel called, “It,” that featured a story of a supernatural being that appears as a clown to terrorize the residents of a small Maine town. The movie touched a nerve with children and adults alike. King said, “Kids love clowns, but they also fear them; clowns with their white faces and red lips are so different and so grotesque compared to ‘normal’ people. The clown furor will pass, as these things do, but it will come back, because under the right circumstances, clowns really can be terrifying.”

King’s prediction appears to have come true. This one movie series could be responsible for single-handedly triggering the fear of clowns, known as Coulrophobia. Following “It,” were other clowns featured in the mold of the evil clown. King’s movie may have been influenced by the 1970’s real life of serial killer, John Wayne Gacy who dressed like a clown to lure 33 teenage boys into his home where he killed and buried them under his house. He was known as the “Killer Clown.” Probably the most recognizable evil clown was the “Joker” in the film “The Dark Knight.” Ben Radford, author of Bad Clowns, says that clown sightings are more common during periods of social anxiety.

A Scene from “It,” Take Your Pick Billy Boy

What’s Behind the Fear of Clowns

Turns out, the fear of clowns may be a timely cocktail of priming for fear, pathogen avoidance and the universal human reaction to what many social psychologists call, “the uncanny valley.” Clown costumes exaggerate facial features, hands, feet and some body parts. These distortions can make many uneasy. It is hard to tell a good clown from a bad clown because of exaggerated features and makeup. Add to that, the shtick that clowns are often involved in physical comedy meant to mimic physical pain and the uncanny valley takes shape.

The Uncanny Valley is the hypothesis that human replicas that appear almost, but not quite like real human beings illicit fear and repulsion. The uncanny valley is also responsible for our dislike and eeriness of human lookalike robots.

Originally coined by Masahiro Mori in 1970, the term “uncanny valley” describes our strange revulsion toward things that appear nearly human, but not quite human. This revulsion usually involves robots, but can also include computer animations and some medical conditions and in this article example, creepy clowns. According to Mori, anything that looks unhealthy or wrong is perceived by the brain as “pathogen avoidance.” As humans, we are biological wired to avoid sickness or anyone who appears sick.

Priming for Fear

Our world is currently primed for fear. In the book, “The Science of Fear,” Gardner writes, “ We are the healthiest, wealthiest, and longest-lived people in history. And we are increasingly afraid. This is one of the great paradoxes of our time.” Wars, poverty, hunger, dysfunctional politicians, climate change, and on and on ad nauseam in the 24 hour news cycle. As a culture, we drink the fear Koolaid and come back for more.

Philip Zimbardo, in “The Lucifer Effect,” says “[w]ith public fear notched up and the enemy threat imminent, reasonable people act irrationally, independent people act in mindless conformity, and peaceful people act as warriors.” Politician have been successful in dividing our country into “us and them.” We fear evil, yet are fascinated by it. We reject “the other.” With this toxic mix of priming for fear, pathogen avoidance and the uncanny valley…..enter stage right, creepy clowns. Paul Slovic, the famous researcher on heuristics and biases explains the creepy clown sightings by the “affect heuristic. He says, “I prefer to think of it as the Good-Bad Rule. When faced with something, your gut may instantly experience a raw feeling that something is Good or Bad. That feeling then guides the judgments that follow: “Is this thing likely to kill me? It feels good. Good things don’t kill. So, no, don’t worry about it.”

And, then there’s the uncanny valley.

The Uncanny Valley Explained

Here are a couple more examples of the uncanny valley phenomenon at work:

Cut Scenes from Medal of Honor: Warfighters: The Creepy Wives Club

Jules A. I. (above) A robot that can hold conversations and answer questions.

Social Unrest

We are living in a time of extreme social unrest. The UK where the first creepy clowns appeared just went through Brexit, or the exit from the European Union. And in the United States, a major sense of unrest with the current presidential election is palatable. If Ben Radford’s hypothesis is correct, that the rise of recent sightings of creepy clowns is caused by social anxiety, we may be experiencing more and more episodes of the uncanny valley. Elizabeth Landau from CNN puts it simply, “[o]ur brains just simply reach an impasse when we see something or someone that resembles our species, but not quite.” It’s that “valley” between real and queasy and creepy real. Creepy clowns may be here to stay for a while.

Angi English has a Master’s in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security and a Master’s in Educational Psychology from Baylor University. She is a licensed Remote Unmanned Aerial Systems pilot. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Texas. She lives in Austin.