Aversion to happiness, also called cherophobia or fear of happiness, is an attitude towards happiness in which individuals may deliberately avoid experiences that invoke positive emotions or happiness.

One of several reasons that cherophobia may develop is the belief that when one becomes happy, a negative event will soon occur that will taint their happiness, as if that individual is being punished for satisfaction. This belief is thought to be more prevalent in non-Western cultures. In Western cultures, such as American culture, "it is almost taken for granted that happiness is one of the most important values guiding people’s lives." Western cultures are more driven by an urge to maximize happiness and minimize sadness. Failing to appear happy is often a cause for concern. Its value is echoed through Western positive psychology and research on subjective well-being.. Fear of happiness is associated with fragility of happiness beliefs, suggesting that one of the causes of aversion to happiness may be the belief that happiness is unstable and fragile . Fear of happiness has also been linked to avoidant and anxious attachment styles.

Phobias are a common form of anxiety disorders and distributions are heterogeneous by age and gender. An American study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that between 8.7 percent and 18.1 percent of Americans suffer from phobias, making it the most common mental illness among women in all age groups and the second most common illness among men older than 25. Between 4 percent and 10 percent of all children experience specific phobias during their lives, and social phobias occur in one percent to three percent of children and adolescents.

A Swedish study found that females have a higher incidence than males (26.5 percent for females and 12.4 percent for males). Among adults, 21.2 percent of women and 10.9 percent of men have a single specific phobia, while multiple phobias occur in 5.4 percent of females and 1.5 percent of males. Women are nearly four times as likely as men to have a fear of animals (12.1 percent in women and 3.3 percent in men) — a higher dimorphic than with all specific or generalized phobias or social phobias. Social phobias are more common in girls than in boys, while situational phobia occurs in 17.4 percent of women and 8.5 percent of men.

There are four major reasons why cherophobes avoid happiness: "believing that being happy will provoke bad things to happen; that happiness will make you a worse person; that expressing happiness is bad for you and others; and that pursuing happiness is bad for you and others". For example, "some people—in Western and Eastern cultures—are wary of happiness because they believe that bad things, such as unhappiness, suffering, and death, tend to happen to happy people."

These findings "call into question the notion that happiness is the ultimate goal, a belief echoed in any number of articles and self-help publications about whether certain choices are likely to make you happy". Also, "in cultures that believe worldly happiness to be associated with sin, shallowness, and moral decline will actually feel less satisfied when their lives are (by other standards) going well", so measures of personal happiness cannot simply be considered a yardstick for satisfaction with one's life, and attitudes such as aversion to happiness have important implications for measuring happiness across cultures and ranking nations on happiness scores.

Research shows that opposition to attitudinal change can gradually give way to acceptance with the passage of time. Attitudinal change towards acceptance may be a slow and even tedious experience for some teachers.

Cyberphobia is a concept introduced in 1980, described as a specific phobia expressed as "an irrational fear of or aversion to computers" or more generally, a fear and/or inability to learn about new technologies.

Some forms of cyberphobia may range from the more passive forms of technophobia of those who are indifferent toward cyberspace to the responses of those who see digital technology as a medium of intrusive surveillance; more extreme responses may involve anti-technological paranoia expressed by social movements that radically oppose ‘technological society’ and ‘the New World Order’.

There are different ways that someone could experience cyberphobia. Teachers may experience a form of cyberphobia if they are forced to change their way of teaching. Another way people may experience cyberphobia is if they feel that they are incompetent, or that the new technology is not needed to advance in life, or that they feel that they lack skills for the new age of technology. Another way people may experience cyberphobia is if they feel like they are going to lose control, or the new technology will affect their status in life.

Geoff Cole and Arnold Wilkins of the University of Essex's Centre for Brain Science were the first scientists to publish on the phenomenon. They believe the reaction is based on a biological revulsion, rather than a learned cultural fear. In a 2013 article in "Psychological Science", Cole and Wilkins write that the reaction is based on "the primitive portion of the brain" that associates the shapes with danger, and that it is an "unconscious reflex reaction". Imagery of various poisonous animals (for example, certain types of snakes, insects, and spiders) have the same visual characteristics. Because of this, Cole and Wilkins hypothesized that trypophobia has an evolutionary basis meant to alert humans of dangerous organisms. They believed this to be an evolutionary advantage, although it also causes people to fear harmless objects.

Cole and Wilkins analyzed videos and images containing clusters of holes, with the images presented in an arrangement that was considered to rank the likelihood they will induce fear. Early images in the series include fruits such as oranges and pomegranates. Then, clusters of holes with a possible association with danger are presented, such as honeycombs, frogs, and insects and arachnids. Finally, images feature wounds and diseases. Using this data, Cole and Wilkins analyzed example images and believe that the images had "unique characteristics". In another research article, An Trong Dinh Le, Cole and Wilkins developed a symptom questionnaire that they say can be used to identify trypophobia.

Cole and Wilkins also stated that "given the large number of images associated with trypophobia, some of which do not contain clusters of holes but clusters of other objects, these results suggest that holes alone are unlikely to be the only cause for this condition" and they "consider that the fear of holes does not accurately reflect the condition."

Other researches have speculated that the images could be perceived as cues to infectious disease (similar to reactions to images of leprosy, smallpox and measles, which manifest as small bumps and clusters on the skin) or parasites, which could be alerts that give one a survival advantage. That the images invoke thoughts of decay, which is why mold on bread or vegetables have certain visual cues and characteristics similar to trypophobic stimuli, has also been theorized. Conversely, psychiatrist Carol Mathews believes that trypophobic responses are more likely from priming and conditioning.

Wilkins and Le also considered that the discomfort from trypophobic images is due to the geometry of the holes making excessive demands on the brain; they stated that these excessive demands may cause visual discomfort, eyestrain or headache, adding that these images have mathematical properties that cannot be processed efficiently by the brain and therefore require more brain oxygenation. Wilkins and researcher Paul Hibbard proposed that the discomfort occurs when people avoid looking at the images because they require excessive brain oxygenation, adding that the brain uses about 20 per cent of the body's energy, and its energy usage needs to be kept to a minimum. They stated that mold and skin diseases can provoke disgust in most people, regardless of whether or not the people have trypophobia, and that they are investigating why some people and not others experience an emotional response in these cases.

Hedonophobia is an excessive fear or aversion to obtaining pleasure. The purported background of some such associated feelings may be due to an egalitarian-related sentiment, whereby one feels a sense of solidarity with individuals in the lowest Human Development Index countries. For others, a recurring thought that some things are too good to be true has resulted in an ingrainedness that they are not entitled to feel too good. The condition is relatively rare. Sometimes, it can be triggered by a religious upbringing wherein asceticism is propounded.

Hedonophobia is formally defined as the fear of experiencing pleasure. 'Hedon' or 'hedone' comes from ancient Greek, meaning 'pleasure' + fear: 'phobia'. Hedonophobia is the inability to enjoy pleasurable experiences, and is often a persistent malady. Diagnosis of the condition is usually related to the age of 'maturity' in each country where the syndrome exists. For instance, in the US a person must be 18 years old to be considered an adult, whereas in Canada he or she must be 18 or 19 years old, depending on the province of residence. Globally, the ages range from (+/-) 12 to 24 years and are mainly determined by traditional ethical practices from previous societies. High anxiety, panic attacks, and extreme fear are symptoms that can result from anticipating pleasure of any kind. Expecting or anticipating pleasure at some point in the future can also trigger an attack.

Hedonophobics have a type of guilt about feeling pleasure or experiencing pleasurable sensations, due to a cultural background or training (either religious or cultural) that eschews pleasurable pursuits as frivolous or inappropriate. Oftentimes, social guilt is connected to having fun while others are suffering, and is common for those who feel undeserving or have self-worth issues to work through. Also, there is a sense that they shouldn't be given pleasures due to their lack of performance in life, and because they have done things that are deemed "wrong" or "undeserving."

To determine the depth of the diagnosis for those who suffer from hedonophobia, background is crucial. For example, when a child is taught that a strong work ethic is all that makes them worthy of the good things in life, guilt becomes a motivator to move away from pleasure when they begin to experience it. The individual learns that pleasures are bad, and feeling good is not as sanctified as being empathetic towards those who suffer.

C.B.T. (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is an effective approach to the resolution of past beliefs that infiltrate and affect the sufferer's current responses to various situations. Medication is only necessary when there is an interference in the person's normal daily functioning. Various techniques are used by those afflicted with the condition to hide, camouflage or mask their aversion to pleasure.

Any relationship that includes things that are pleasurable is re-established when the sufferer learns that he is not worthy of anything pleasurable, or that he only deserves the opposite of those things which are pleasurable. A disconnect is necessary to determine the sufferer's lack of ability to intervene in the overall process.

Women's fear of crime refers to women's fear of being a victim of crime, independent of actual victimization. Although fear of crime is a concern for people of all genders, studies consistently find that women around the world tend to have much higher levels of fear of crime than men, despite the fact that in many places, and for most offenses, men's actual victimization rates are higher. Fear of crime is related to perceived risk of victimization, but is not the same; fear of crime may be generalized instead of referring to specific offenses, and perceived risk may also be considered a demographic factor that contributes to fear of crime. Women tend to have higher levels for both perceived risk and fear of crime.

In women's everyday lives, fear of crime can have negative effects, such as reducing their environmental mobility. Studies have shown that women tend to avoid certain behaviors, such as walking alone at night, because they are fearful of crime, and would feel more comfortable with these behaviors if they felt safer.

For a long time, the fear of falling was merely believed to be a result of the psychological trauma of a fall, also called "post-fall syndrome". This syndrome was first mentioned in 1982 by Murphy and Isaacs, who noticed that after a fall, ambulatory persons developed intense fear and walking disorders. Fear of falling has been identified as one of the key symptoms of this syndrome. Since that time, FOF has gained recognition as a specific health problem among older adults. However, FOF was also commonly found among elderly persons who had not yet experienced a fall.

Prevalence of FOF appears to increase with age and to be higher in women. Age remains significant in multiple logistic regression analyses. The results of different studies have reported gender as a somewhat significant risk factor for fear of falling. Other risk factors of fear of falling in the elderly include dizziness, self-rated health status, depression, and problems with gait and balance.

A pseudophobia is a purported irrational aversion or fear whose existence is as yet unproven. Examples of this type of condition include schoolphobia and separation anxiety. The term has also been applied to first time fathers and mothers who have an exorbitant fear of hurting their own infant child due to an exaggerated perception of their fragility. John Bowlby has described the agoraphobic condition as a pseudophobia. These features may in actuality encompass a reaction to a lack of a secure refuge or other underlying pathological processes. Its origin typically derives from some dreaded memory.

Blood phobia is often caused by direct or vicarious trauma in childhood or adolescence. Though some have suggested a possible genetic link, a study of twins suggests that social learning and traumatic events, rather than genetics, is of greater significance.

The inclusion of “blood-injury phobia” within the category of specific or simple phobias in classificatory systems reflects a perception that fear has a primary role in the disorder. Consistent with this assumption, blood-injury phobia appears to share a common etiology with other phobias. Kendler, Neale, Kessler, Heath, and Eaves (1992) have argued from data comparing monozygotic with dizygotic twins that the genetic factor common to all phobias (agoraphobia, social phobia, and specific phobias), strongly predisposes a person to specific phobias.

The recognition of an inherited vulnerability common to all phobias is consistent with the notion that elevated trait anxiety predisposes one to anxiety disorders. Trait anxiety provides a background of affective arousal that permits a more rapid activation of the fight or flight response. With respect to specific activating events, conditioning is one way that stimuli become able to elicit anxiety (Rachman, 1991).

Accordingly, painful experiences can condition fear to blood-injury stimuli. Investigators typically classify around 60% of self-reported onsets of blood-injury phobia as beginning with conditioning experiences (Ost, 1991; Ost,

1992; Ost & Hugdahl, 1985; Thyer et al., 1985). However, examinations of available case-by-case verbal summaries call into question the conclusion that conditioning episodes are as prevalent as reported (see Mattick, Page, & Lampe, in press). For example, Thyer et al. (1985) identified a conditioning episode when a “patient received an injection at age 13 and fainted” (p. 455), and in another person when ‘at age six she heard her elementary school teacher give a talk on the circulatory system. This frightened the patient to the

point of syncope” (Thyer et al., 1988.)

With the changes of technologies, new challenges are coming up on a daily basis. New kinds of phobias have emerged (the so-called techno-phobias). Since the first mobile phone was introduced to the consumer market in 1983, these devices have become significantly mainstream in the majority of societies.

Shambare, Rugimbana & Zhowa (2012) claimed that cell phones are "possibly the biggest non-drug addiction of the 21st century", and that colleges students may spend up to nine hours every day on their phones, which can lead to dependence on such technologies as a driver of modern life and an example of "a paradox of technology". that is both freeing and enslaving.

A survey conducted by SecurEnvoy showed that young adults and adolescents are more likely to suffer from nomophobia. The same survey reported that 77% of the teens reported anxiety and worries when they were without their mobile phones, followed by the 25-34 age group and people over 55 years old. Some psychological predictors to look for in a person who might be suffering of this phobia are "self negative views, younger age, low esteem and self-efficacy, high extroversion or introversion, impulsiveness and sense of urgency and sensation seeking".

Among students, frequent cell phone usage has been correlated with decreases in grade point average (GPA) and increased anxiety that negatively impacts self-reported life satisfaction (well-being and happiness) in comparison to students with less frequent usage. GPA decreases may be due to the over-use of cell phone or computer usage consuming time and focus during studying, attending class, working on assignments, and the distraction of cell phones during class. Over-usage of cell phones may increase anxiety due to the pressure to be continually connected to social networks and could rob chances of perceived solitude, relieving daily stress, that has been linked as a component of well-being.

There are no documented treatments for trypophobia, but exposure therapy, which has been used to treat phobias, is likely to be effective for treating trypophobia.

Fear of fish or ichthyophobia ranges from cultural phenomena such as fear of eating fish, fear of touching raw fish, or fear of dead fish, up to irrational fear (specific phobia). Galeophobia is the fear specifically of sharks.

Blood phobia (also AE: hemophobia or BE: haemophobia) is the extreme and irrational fear of blood, a type of specific phobia. Severe cases of this fear can cause physical reactions that are uncommon in most other fears, specifically vasovagal syncope (fainting). Similar reactions can also occur with trypanophobia and traumatophobia. For this reason, these phobias are categorized as "blood-injection-injury phobia" by the DSM-IV. Some early texts refer to this category as "blood-injury-illness phobia."

Nomophobia is a proposed name for the phobia of being out of cellular phone contact. It is, however, arguable that the word "phobia" is misused and that in the majority of cases it is another form of anxiety disorder.

Although nomophobia does not appear in the current "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", Fifth Edition (DSM-5), it has been proposed as a "specific phobia", based on definitions given in the DSM-IV. According to Bianchi and Philips (2005) psychological factors are involved in the overuse of a mobile phone. These could include low self-esteem (when individuals looking for reassurance use the mobile phone in inappropriate ways) and extroverted personality (when naturally social individuals use the mobile phone to excess). It is also highly possible that nomophobic symptoms may be caused by other underlying and preexisting mental disorders, with likely candidates including social phobia or social anxiety disorder, social anxiety, and panic disorder.

The term, an abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone phobia", was coined during a 2008 study by the UK Post Office who commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organization evaluating anxieties suffered by mobile phone users. The study found that nearly 53% of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage". The study, sampled 2,163 people, found that about 58% of men and 47% of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9% feel stressed when their mobile phones are off. 55% of those surveyed cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason that they got anxious when they could not use their mobile phones. The study compared stress levels induced by the average case of nomophobia to be on-par with those of "wedding day jitters" and trips to the dentist.

Another study found that out of 547 male, undergraduate students in Health Services, 23% of the students were classified as nomophobic, while an additional 64% were at risk of developing nomophobia. Of these students, approximately 77% checked their mobile phones 35 or more times a day.

More than one in two nomophobes never switch off their mobile phones. The study and subsequent coverage of the phobia resulted in two editorial columns authored by individuals who minimized their mobile phone use or chose not to own one at all. These authors appeared to treat the condition with light undertones of mockery, or outright disbelief and amusement.

Language classicists do not like this word or approve of it, because of its inherent confusion with the existing, though rare, nomophobia, a fear of laws, rules or regulations. The latter derives from the Greek "nomos" (a law, rule or regulation) seen in such other words as astronomy (rules about the stars), gastronomy (rules about food and eating), autonomy (ruling oneself), economy (rules governing the finances of the state or household), antinomy (a law contrary to another law), metronome (a device to regulate metre or beat), nomocracy (the rule of law in society), nomography (the law in written form), nomology (the study or science of law), nomothete (a lawgiver), and the archaic anomy (lawlessness). The neologistic meaning referred to in this article, relating to mobile phones, seems to have been adopted by the younger generations, and by those without a deeper understanding of the Oxford guidelines on word construction, in which typically Greek words are attached to Greek words (and Latin to Latin, etc.).

Rachman proposed three pathways to acquiring fear conditioning: classical conditioning, vicarious acquisition and informational/instructional acquisition.

Much of the progress in understanding the acquisition of fear responses in phobias can be attributed to classical conditioning (Pavlovian model). When an aversive stimulus and a neutral one are paired together, for instance when an electric shock is given in a specific room, the subject can start to fear not only the shock but the room as well. In behavioral terms, this is described as a conditioned stimulus (CS) "(the room)" that is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (UCS) "(the shock)", which leads to a conditioned response (CR) "(fear for the room)" (CS+UCS=CR).

For instance, in case of the fear of heights (acrophobia), the CS is heights such as a balcony on the top floors of a high rise building. The UCS originates from an aversive or traumatizing event in the person's life, such as almost falling down from a great height. The original fear of almost falling down is associated with being on a high place, leading to a fear of heights. In other words, the CS "(heights)" associated with the aversive UCS "(almost falling down)" leads to the CR "(fear)".

This direct conditioning model, though very influential in the theory of fear acquisition, is not the only way to acquire a phobia.

Vicarious fear acquisition is learning to fear something, not by a subject's own experience of fear, but by watching others reacting fearfully (observational learning). For instance, when a child sees a parent reacting fearfully to an animal, the child can become afraid of the animal as well. Through observational learning, humans are able to learn to fear potentially dangerous objects; a reaction which also been observed in non-human primates. In a study focusing on non-human primates, results showed that the primates learned to fear snakes at a fast rate after observing parents’ fearful reactions. An increase of fearful behaviors was observed as the non-human primates continued to observe their parents’ fearful reaction. Even though observational learning has been proven to be effective in creating reactions of fear and phobias, it has also been shown that by physically experiencing an event, chances increase of fearful and phobic behaviors. In some cases, physically experiencing an event may increase the fear and phobia more so than observing a fearful reaction of another human or non-human primate.

Informational/instructional fear acquisition is learning to fear something by getting information. For instance, fearing electrical wire after having heard that touching it will result in an electric shock.

A conditioned fear response to an object or situation is not always a phobia. To meet the criteria for a phobia there must also be symptoms of impairment and avoidance. Impairment is defined as being unable to complete routine tasks whether occupational, academic or social. In acrophobia an impairment of occupation could result from not taking a job solely because of its location at the top floor of a building, or socially not participating in a social event at a theme park. The avoidance aspect is defined as behavior that results in the omission of an aversive event that would otherwise occur with the goal of the preventing anxiety.

Studies done by psychologists Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk have further explained the nature of this fear. One of their more famous studies is the "visual cliff. Below is their description of the cliff:

Thirty-six infants were tested in their experiments, ranging from six to fourteen months. Gibson and Walk found that when placed on the board, 27 of the infants would crawl on the shallow side when called by their mothers; only three ventured off the "edge" of the cliff. Many infants would crawl away from their mothers who were calling from the deep end, and some would cry because they couldn’t reach their mothers without crossing an apparent chasm. Some would pat the glass on the deep end, but even with this assurance would not crawl on the glass. These results, although unable to prove that this fear is innate, indicate that most human infants have well developed depth perception and are able to make the connection between depth and the danger that accompanies falling.

Travel aversion, not to be confused with "hodophobia", is a condition experienced by people that dislike or disapprove traveling. People who abstain from travel may see traveling more as a chore than as a leisure.

Travel-averse people feel well enough at home, and do not see the point in traveling. The reason may be that the effort required to organize a trip is too demanding to them, especially since they are not prepared, and the stress included in traveling and orienting oneself in an unknown environment may prevent any enjoyment during the travel. A travel aversive will typically not enjoy his staying abroad, especially if he is traveling alone for a short period.

Most of the reasons motivating people to travel seems futile to travel aversives. Their main considerations include the high resource consumption induced by traveling, which entails that traveling should be reserved to necessary cases, and should be avoided otherwise. Traveling is advanced as a non-ecological lifestyle, and such people enjoy simple living, in which one individual seeks to satisfy only its needs, and heavily considers the reasons for satisfying his wants. Traveling appears to them as another facet of consumerism.

Travel aversives do not experience post-vacation blues. They feel rather happy about being back into their usual habits. Travel aversives tend to look for a stable lifestyle devoid of any unforeseen events, so as to feel comfortable about the near future. Traveling does not fit in this lifestyle, since many contingencies can happen, with sometimes highly displeasing consequences.

Sigmund Freud has footnoted the possibility that this fear may be derived from a lack of ingenuity allowing one to ornamentally distance the copulatory organs from the excretory organs. Such a condition can affect both men and women. For others, symptoms include what characterizes a panic attack. It does not necessarily have to be induced by an uncovered penis, but may also result from seeing the manbulging outline or curvature of the penis, perhaps through clothes consisting of thin fabric. In more extreme cases it has been likened to the fight or flight response ingrained within the human body wherein an individual ceases to be intimate with their male partner and is unable to visit mixed gender establishments where people are likely to wear more revealing clothing, such as a gym, beach, cinema or livingrooms with a switched on monitor. The fear can recur through any of the senses including accidental touch, sight, hearing the word penis or thinking about an erection. The phobia may have developed from a condition such as dyspareunia, a trauma (usually sexual) that occurred during childhood, but can also have a fortuitous origin. In literature covering human sexuality, it is used as an adjective only to negatively allude to penetrative sex acts. Men who have the phobia may try to avoid wearing jeans and other light fabrics, especially in public. Some analysts have purported that the condition may be inherited or may be a combination of genetic inheritance and life experiences. For men with the condition, one of the byproducts is difficulty consummating with a partner due to a sense of vulnerability. This vulnerability may have developed during childhood because they grew up being told by their parents that sex and its physiological functions were evil, sinful and dirty, but were subsequently unable to detach such shameful feelings nor reverse it upon reaching adulthood, even when romantic initiatives were subsequently approved of or encouraged by their parents.

Hoplophobia is a political neologism coined by retired American military officer Jeff Cooper as a pejorative to describe an "irrational aversion to weapons." It is also used to describe the "fear of firearms" or the "fear of armed citizens." Hoplophobia is a political term and not a recognized medical phobia.

In addition to celibacy, the theory cites declining numbers of marriages and declining birthrates in Japan. According to surveys conducted by the Japan Association for Sex Education, between 2011 and 2013, the number of female college students reporting to be virgins increased. Additionally, surveys conducted by the Japanese Family Planning Association (JFPA) indicated a high number of Japanese women who reported that they "were not interested in or despised sexual contact". Meanwhile, surveys conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Japan in 2008 and 2013, revealed that the number of Japanese men and women reporting to not be in any kind of romantic relationship grew by 10%.

The theory attributes two possible causes for these reports: the past two decades of economic stagnation as well as high gender inequality in Japan.

Ichthyophobia is described in "Psychology: An International Perspective" as an "unusual" specific phobia. Both symptoms and remedies of ichthyophobia are common to most specific phobias.

John B. Watson, a renowned name of behaviorism, describes an example, quoted in many books in psychology, of conditioned fear of a goldfish in an infant and a way of unconditioning of the fear by what is called now graduated exposure therapy:

In contrast, radical exposure therapy was used successfully to cure a man with a "life affecting" fish phobia on the 2007 documentary series, "The Panic Room".

Chromophobia (also known as chromatophobia or chrematophobia) is a persistent, irrational fear of, or aversion to, colors and is usually a conditioned response. While actual clinical phobias to color are rare, colors can elicit hormonal responses and psychological reactions.

Chromophobia may also refer to an aversion of use of color in products or design. Within cellular biology, "chromophobic" cells are a classification of cells that do not attract hematoxylin, and is related to chromatolysis.

Social scientists have differing views on the causes of women's fear of crime. Some have argued that women's heightened fear of crime is due to women's higher levels physical vulnerability compared to men, although feminist work generally resists this generalization and often tries to relocate the cause to larger societal factors. It is nonetheless important that most women are aware of pervasive cultural view that women are more vulnerable than men, which may make them think they are more likely to be victimized and therefore contribute to their fear; in this way, it would be perceived vulnerability and not actual vulnerability that is the cause of women's fear. Some research has also suggested that women are in fact not much more fearful about crime than men, but that dominant cultural ideas about masculinity may make men reluctant to talk about their fear or report it in surveys.