But I also know several people who have a real fear of clowns. It’s no accident some of fiction’s great villains — the Joker of comic books, Pagliacci of opera, Pennywise of “It” — wear makeup. A University of Sheffield study once found children are frightened by clown-themed décor in hospitals. A psychology professor at California State University-Northridge found that masks and makeup drive this phenomenon, as young children are “very reactive to a familiar body type with an unfamiliar face.”
La Cross Tribune - WI
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