Fears are relatively quick, adaptive responses to environmental stimuli and inner, cognitive events and sensations which allow for one’s survival. Some take a more severe form and morph into phobias–extreme fear resulting in functional impairments. While some researchers are concerned with clinical definitions and theories of phobia, others are interested in what the general public believes. Adrian Furnham, in a 1995 study, Lay Beliefs About Phobias, was one. Now, based on data collected 25 years later (2020), we report a conceptual replication of this work. Results suggest that people today most concisely believe the development of phobias is predicated on one’s personality; traumatic events; psychoanalytic and behavioral-learning associations; genetic and biochemical influences; cognitive style, such as tendencies to catastrophize; and cultural and social factors.
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