In his review of Shakes the Clown, Roger Ebert wrote:
Like a lot of small children, I instinctively knew that clowns were not clowns, but adult males dressed up in a weird way for reasons I would rather not know anything about. They pretended they wanted to be my friends, and yet they hid themselves behind bizarre and frightening disguises. They didn’t look like fun friends to me.
Which I guess I understand, just as much as I understand the results of this study, but I’ve never really had a problem with clowns. I’ve never been afraid of them.
Actually, while the article suggests that many children don’t like clowns because they’re afraid of them, that isn’t necessarily the case. It’s difficult to say without seeing the study itself. Many children might simply dislike their use in a therapeutic setting. After all, these were clowns at the hospital, where no kid wants to be anyway, and under those circumstances, the antics of even the best of clowns might seem forced and unpleasant. It might be interesting and worthwhile to investigate what children think of clowns in other, maybe more conducive settings — like, say, the circus.
Via sagittaire.