Johannesburg - Megalophobia, the fear of large things, such as buildings, elephants, and vehicles, is the most common unusual phobia in the world, new research has found.
The study was conducted by Cats.com to find the most searched unusual phobia in 34 countries.
With megalophobia topping the list, autophobia held the second-highest search volume for the most unusual phobias in the world, with 111 310 searches and the most common in Norway. Autophobia is the fear of being alone that could be caused by traumatic childhood experiences and may be rooted in abandonment issues.
Meanwhile, the fear of women came in third place, accounting for 60 290 searches. Gynophobia is the dislike or fear of women, and this unusual phobia is said to have arisen to define the fear men experience of being humiliated by women, namely by emasculation.
In addition, the fear of clustered patterns of holes – or trypophobia – is the most commonly searched phobia, with a total of 4.4 million global searches.
The fear of spiders was the most commonly searched animal phobia in the world, with more than 535 000 searches and 36 countries holding spiders as their biggest animal phobia.
In addition, cacophobia, an intense fear of ugliness, is the phobia with the biggest increase in searches – 201.9% increase, with 51 900 global searches between 2021 and 2022 and 156 700 from 2022 to the end of 2023.
Other phobias which made the Cats.com list include anthophobia, the fear of flowers, chromophobia, the fear of colours, pogonophobia, the fear of beards, ombrophobia, the fear of rain, as well as microphobia, the fear of small things.