Phunny Phobias
If you met someone who was afraid of paper or wax statues, wouldn't you tell them to stop being so ridiculous and get over it? Every Monday, Null editor Hayley hand-picks another bizarre phobia and tries to work out whether it's real or rubbish.
This week:
Wiccaphobia: fear of witches and witchcraft
What's so scary about it?
It depends whether we're talking about a belief that witches and witchcraft exist, coupled with an irrational fear of them, or just an irrational fear of them if they do exist. If it's the second, then wiccaphobia (not the fear of large, online encyclopaedias) seems a remarkably rational kind of phobia to have. As far as I'm concerned, if an evil hooky nosed hag alights on my doorstep this Halloween, there's nothing particularly irrational about my screaming the house down.
What do the scientists say about it?
That's the problem. Yet again, nothing. I'm beginning to become suspicious about this phobia malarky. There is clearly someone somewhere in the interweb with too much time on their hands, who spends their days gluing prefixes to -phobia.
Hayley says:
"If there was a fear of witches, we'd all have it. If there were any witches. Rubbish."
So far: Real 11½ Rubbish 12½
Find phunny phobias from other weeks here.
Null's other regular features:
Tuesday: Nutty Nomenclature
Wednesday: Doctor Doctor
Thursday: Peculiar Periodicals
Friday: End of week timewasters
Image: Carlos Paes
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