According to Child and Adolescent Mental Health, approximately 5 percent of children suffer from specific phobias and 15 percent seek treatment for anxiety-related problems. In recent years the number of children with clinically diagnosed phobias has gradually increased. Researchers are finding that the majority of these diagnoses come anxiety related phobias or society phobias.

Specific phobias are more prevalent in girls than in boys. Likewise, specific phobias are also more prevalent in older children than younger.

Though some fears are inborn, the majority are learned. Phobias develop through negative experiences and through observation. One way children begin to develop fears is by witnessing or hearing about dangers. Ollendick proposes while some phobias may originate from a single traumatizing experience, others may be caused by simpler, or less dramatic, origins such as observing another child’s phobic reaction or through the exposure to media that introduces phobias.

- 2% of parents linked their child’s phobia to a [direct conditioning episode]

- 26% of parents linked their child’s phobia to a [vicarious conditioning episodes]

- 56% of parents linked their child’s phobia to their child’s very first contact with water

- 16% of parents could not directly link their child’s phobia

In addition to asking about the origins of a child’s fear, the questionnaire asked if parents believed that “information associated with adverse consequences was the most influential factor in the development of their child’s phobia.” The results were as followed:

- 0% of parents though it was the most influential factor

- 14% of parents though it was somewhat influential

- 86% of parents though it had little to no influence

Bruce and Sanderson also state that animal phobias are more common in females than males. Furthermore, Dr. B.K. Wiederhold, a psychiatrist investigating virtual reality therapy as a possible method of therapy for anxiety disorders, goes on to provide data that although prevalent in both men and women, 75% to 90% of patients reporting specific phobias of the animal subtype are women.

Negative experiences with horses during one's childhood may give rise to this phobia. Equinophobia may also be triggered by a fall from a horse. In many cases, people begin to avoid horses and this gradually develops from fear to a full-blown phobia.

The phobia can also be caused by a simple fear of the animal itself. A horse's imposing size and weight and large teeth may scare some people, especially children.

Negative media portrayals of horses and stallions may add to one's fears.

Though scopophobia is a solitary disorder, many individuals with scopophobia also commonly experience other anxiety disorders. Scopophobia has been related to many other irrational fears and phobias. Specific phobias and syndromes that are similar to scopophobia include erythrophobia, the fear of blushing (which is found especially in young people), and an epileptic's fear that being looked which may itself precipitate such an attack. Scopophobia is also commonly associated with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. It is not considered indicative of other disorders, but is rather considered as a psychological problem that may be treated independently.

Sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that shying away from casual glances in the street remained one of the characteristic symptoms of psychosis in public. Many scopophobia patients develop habits of voyeurism or exhibitionism. Another related, yet very different syndrome, scopophilia, is the excessive enjoyment of looking at erotic items.

The fear of trains is anxiety and fear associated with trains, railways, and railway travel.

Jeanette M. Bruce and William C. Sanderson, in their book "Specific Phobias", concluded that the age of onset for animal phobias is usually early childhood, between the ages of five and nine. A study done in South Africa by Drs. Willem A. Hoffmann and Lourens H. Human further confirms this conclusion for patients suffering from cynophobia and additionally found dog phobia developing as late as age 20.

The alternative view is that the dangers, such as from spiders, are overrated and not sufficient to influence evolution. Instead, inheriting phobias would have restrictive and debilitating effects upon survival, rather than being an aid. For some communities such as in Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and South America (except Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia), spiders are included in traditional foods. This suggests arachnophobia may be a cultural, rather than genetic trait.

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.

Discriminatory aspects of ageism have been strongly linked to gerontophobia. This irrational fear or hatred of the elderly is associated with the fact that someday all young people will grow old and that old age is associated with death. This unwillingness to accept death manifests in feelings of hostility and discriminatory acts towards the elderly. This source is irrelevant as it too has aged out of the scope of sociological bearing >

Anxiety around mirrors and at all costs staying away from mirrors

Specific phobias have a one-year prevalence of 8.7% in the USA with 21.9% of the cases being severe, 30.0% moderate and 48.1% mild. The usual age of onset is childhood to adolescence. Women are twice as likely to suffer from specific phobias as men.

Evolutionary psychology argues that infants or children develop specific phobias to things that could possibly harm them, so their phobias alert them to the danger.

The most common co-occurring disorder for children with a specific phobia is another anxiety disorder. Although comorbidity is frequent for children with specific phobias, it tends to be lower than for other anxiety disorders.

Onset is typically between 7 and 9 years of age. Specific phobias can occur at any age but seem to peak between 10 and 13 years of age.

Scopophobia is unique among phobias in that the fear of being looked at is considered both a social phobia and a specific phobia, because it is a specific occurrence which takes place in a social setting. Most phobias typically fall in either one category or the other but scopophobia can be placed in both. On the other hand, as with most phobias, scopophobia generally arises from a traumatic event in the person's life. With scopophobia, it is likely that the person was subjected to public ridicule as a child. Additionally, a person suffering from scopophobia may often be the subject to public staring, possibly due to a deformity or physical ailment.

According to the Social Phobia/Social Anxiety Association, U.S. government data for 2012 suggests that social anxiety affects over 7% of the population at any given time. Stretched over a lifetime, the percentage increases to 13%.

There are three major categories of driving phobia, distinguished by their onset.

The first and most common cause of a fear of driving is traffic accidents. These situations cause PTSD driving phobia, where the fear develops in response to a traumatic event. Usually, situations like these trigger a fear of driving in only specific situations related to the original cause, though it also can trigger a fear of driving entirely.

The second most common form is driving phobia as a specific phobia. Because driving does involve some danger and the possibility of a collision, there does exist some fear or caution in many rational people. However, for some the fear of crashing, losing control over the car, being criticized or being in a dangerous situation will cause panic. It is classified as a phobia when the anxiety does not rationally reflect the amount of danger.

The least common category is an extension of agoraphobia, the anxiety of having a panic attack while being in crowds or public places. One manifestation of agoraphobia is the inability to travel long distances away from home. When driving, an agoraphobe may feel that he is putting himself into a fearful situation, and driving phobia may develop.

Autophobia can be derived from social anxiety. When people with this phobia are left alone, they will often experience panic attacks, which is a common reaction in those suffering from social anxiety. This disease can also stem from depression because when people become seriously autophobic, they start to find certain tasks and activities almost impossible to complete. This usually occurs when autophobes are faced with a possibility of going into a public place where there are lots of people or simply a place that is uncomfortable or unfamiliar to them. This phobia can also be closely related to agoraphobia, which leads to lowered self-confidence and uncertainty of their ability to finish certain activities that need to be done alone. People suffering from this phobia tend to imagine the worst possible scenario. For example, they might have a panic attack and then think that they are going to die from this event.

Another experience that doctors believe leads individuals to develop this phobia is children being abandoned, usually by their parents, when they are very young. This first causes childhood trauma that then persists to effect them as they grow up. This turns into autophobia because they are now afraid that all of the important people in their lives are going to leave or abandon them. Therefore, this particular phobia can come from behavior and experiences that these people have had when they were growing up. However, abandonment does not necessarily mean being left alone physically, this also includes being isolated financially or emotionally. Having drastic, life-altering experiences, particularly causes more trauma which makes this phobia worse. People that have very high anxiety and in this case are more “high strung,” are more susceptible to this phobia.

Although this phobia is often developed at a young age, it can develop later in life as well. Individuals sometimes develop this fear with the death of a loved one or the ending of an important relationship. Autophobia can also be described as the fear of being without a specific person. Tragic events in a person's life may create this fear of being without one specific person, but this often will eventually progress into a fear of being secluded in general.

There can be many different reasons for why people develop genophobia. Some of the main causes are former incidents of sexual assaults or abuse. These incidents violate the victim’s trust and take away their sense of right to self-determination. Another possible cause of genophobia is the feeling of intense shame or medical reasons. Others may have the fear without any diagnosable reason.

Rape is the unconsensual and unlawful act of sexual intercourse forced by one person onto another. This can include penetration, but does not have to. Victims of rape can be female or male. “Rape is the most extreme possible invasion of a person’s physical and emotional privacy.” It is considered to be such a heinous crime because victims are attacked in a very personal manner and because physical force or deception can be utilized. Rape can be physically painful, but it can be more emotionally unbearable. Rape is often described as less of an invasion of the body and more of an invasion of “self.” Victims often have intense emotional reactions, usually in a predictable order. This is known as rape trauma syndrome.

Rape victims can experience added stress after the assault because of the way hospital staff, police personnel, friends, family, and significant others react to the situation. They can often feel lowered self-esteem and even a sense of helplessness. They long for a sense of safety and control over their lives. Rape victims can develop a fear of sex for physical and psychological reasons. During sexual assault, victims experience physical trauma such as soreness, bruising, pain, genital irritation, genital infection, severe tearing of vaginal walls, and rectal bleeding. They may also grapple with fear of the potential reoccurrence of assault. This possibility for rape can put stress on relationships as well. Some women and men can become distrusting and suspicious of others. Rape victims can become fearful of sexual intercourse because of physical pain and mental anguish.

Media, marketers, politicians, youth workers and researchers have been implicated in perpetuating the fear of youth. Since young people in developed countries are expected to stay out of the workforce, any role for them outside that of consumer is potentially threatening to adults. Selling safety to parents and teachers has also been a driving force, as home security systems, cellphones, and computer surveillance usage is marketed to parents; and x-ray machines, metal detectors and closed-circuit television are increasingly sold to schools on the premise that young people are not to be trusted. These steps are in spite of the fact that experience consistently shows that monitoring youth does little to prevent violence or tragedy: the Columbine High School massacre occurred in a building with video surveillance and in-building police.

The very creation of the terms youth, adolescence and teenager have all been attributed to the fear of youth. As the western world became more industrialized, young people were increasingly driven from the workforce, including involuntary and voluntary positions, and into increasingly total institutions where they lost personal autonomy in favor of social control. Government policies outside of schools have been implicated as well, as over the last forty years curfews, anti-loitering and anti-cruising laws, and other legislation apparently targeted at teenagers have taken hold across the country. Courts have increasingly ruled against youth rights, as well. Before the 1940s "teenagers" were not listed in newspaper headlines, because as a group they did not exist. The impact of youth since World War II on western society has been immense, largely driven by marketing that proponents them as the "Other". In turn, youth are caused to behave in ways that appear different from adults. This has led to the phenomenon of youth, and in turn has created a perpetuated fear of them.

Like astraphobia, lilapsophobia is a common fear for children, although less common. Because children are just learning to distinguish between fantasy and reality, major storm broadcasts on television or discussion by parents can cause fear that the storm is coming with a tornadic potential or a hurricane.

Because fear is a part of normal child development, this phobia is not diagnosed unless if persisted for more than six months. Parents should conquer the child's fear by telling them how rare the major storms that hit hometown area are.

In 2009, a study investigated the impact of anthropophobia in specific cultures. 50 patients diagnosed with anthropophobia, 50 patients diagnosed with neurasthenia, and 50 control subjects were recruited from hospitals in Beijing, China. Measures of anthropophobic and anxiety symptoms were administered to the subjects. The patients with anthropophobia could not even make eye contact with others and were afraid of being watched. The conclusion drawn was that anthropophobics, like neurasthenics, experience anxiety and depression, but "more cognitively and less somatically".

The fear of flying may be created by various other phobias and fears:

- Fear of crashing, which in rare cases will cause death, is the most common reason for the fear of flying.

- Fear of closed in spaces (claustrophobia), such as that of an aircraft cabin

- Fear of heights (hypsophobia)

- Feeling of not being in control

- Fear of vomiting, where a person will be afraid that they'll have motion sickness on board, or encounter someone having motion sickness and have no control over it (such as escaping it)

- Fear of having panic attacks in certain places, where escape would be difficult and/or embarrassing (agoraphobia)

- Fear of hijacking or terrorism

Autophobia, also called monophobia, isolophobia, or eremophobia, is the specific phobia of isolation; a morbid fear of being egotistical, or a dread of being alone or isolated. Sufferers need not be physically alone, but just to believe that they are being ignored or unloved. Contrary to what would be implied by a literal reading of the term, "autophobia" does not describe a "fear of oneself". The disorder typically develops from and is associated with other anxiety disorders.

Autophobia can be associated with or accompanied by several other phobias such as agoraphobia, and is generally considered to be a part of the agoraphobic cluster. This means that autophobia has a lot of the same characteristics as certain anxiety disorders and hyperventilation disorders. The main concern of people with phobias in the agoraphobic cluster is getting help in case of emergency. This means people might be afraid of going out in public, being caught in a crowd, being alone, or being stranded.

Autophobia is not to be confused with agoraphobia (fear of being in public, or caught in large crowds), self-hatred, or social anxiety although it can be closely related to these things. It is its own phobia that tends to be accompanied by other anxiety disorders and phobias.

Anthropophobia or Anthrophobia (literally "fear of humans", from , "ánthropos", "human" and , "phóbos", "fear"), also called interpersonal relation phobia or social phobia, is pathological fear of people or human company.

Anthropophobia is an extreme, pathological form of shyness and timidity. Being a form of social phobia, it may manifest as fears of blushing or meeting others' gaze, awkwardness and uneasiness when appearing in society, etc. A specific Japanese cultural form is known as taijin kyofusho.

Anthropophobia can be best defined as the fear of people in crowded situations, but can also go beyond and leave the person uncomfortable when being around just one person. Conditions vary depending on the person. Some cases are mild and can be handled while more serious cases can lead to complete social withdrawal and the exclusive use of written and electronic communication.

Reasons for tokophobia may be complex. Women may fear for the infant's life, fear the unknown and the uncertainty of the labour and birth process. Women may lack trust in obstetric services or fear being left alone in labour.

Lilapsophobes spend a lot of time watching the weather or checking weather online to keep an eye out for oncoming storms. When a storm hits, sufferers either watch for severe weather alerts constantly or take cover, like under the bed or in the windowless room. In the extreme cases, sufferers take tornado shelter as soon as rain starts falling, usually in the basement or storm shelter. Sufferers who have weather radio or mobile phones can watch the radar and alerts using it while hiding.