Research on Diversity of Phobias
With respect to sex and age
Among those who participated in the study:
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- 21% of women and 11% of men met criteria for any single phobia, while 5.4% of women and 1.5% of men reported multiple phobias.
- 17.4% of women and 8.5% of men had situational phobias (lightning, enclosed spaces, darkness, flying, heights).
- 12% of women and 3% of men had animal phobias (spiders and snakes). This was felt more intensely in younger individuals.
- No gender difference was observed in those experiencing what the study called mutilation phobias (injections, dentists, injuries).
- Inanimate object phobias were more common in older individuals.
- Fear of flying increased and fear of injections decreased as women, but not men, grew older.
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