Why Some People Are More Easily Creeped Out Than Others

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Have you ever noticed how dissimilar we can be when it comes to getting "creeped out"?

You probably know some individuals who remain unflappable in even the most unnerving of situations, but also know others who would rather die than sit through a horror movie and who may even be afraid to go upstairs in their house without turning all the lights on first.

What is it, exactly, that makes us so different in our reactions to unusual situations?

The Nature of Creepiness

Recent theories of creepiness propose that creepiness is primarily about uncertainty, especially uncertainty as to whether or not there is something to fear in the situation that we currently find ourselves in.

Perhaps you are walking through a dark area with lots of hiding places for the creepy-crawly things that may be lurking there waiting to get you, or perhaps you are interacting with a person who is behaving strangely and steering the conversation in uncomfortable directions. In these situations, you don’t know if there is really anything to fear from the place or the person, but you feel uneasy nonetheless, and you become hyper-vigilant as you try to figure out if you are in danger or not.

Notice that the experience of being creeped out is different from related emotional experiences such as fear or disgust. Emotions like fear and disgust result from signals that are very clear: We know what type of threat we face and we know what we need to do to deal with it. The inherent uncertainty surrounding creepiness, on the other hand, prevents us from knowing how to move on, which leaves us wallowing in an unpleasant limbo of inaction.

But why do some of us get flustered and anxious so much more easily than others? What role does your personality play in the experience of creepiness?

How Personality Relates to Getting Creeped Out

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If getting creeped out is, in fact, a result of some sort of uncertainty or ambiguity, it would logically follow that people who are most uncomfortable with uncertainty or ambiguity would also be more prone to experiencing creepiness.

A recent experiment put this idea to the test.

In an online study, 278 individuals filled out personality scales that measured their tolerance for ambiguity and the frequency with which they were susceptible to having experiences where they felt that something was not quite right. They then rated 25 images on creepiness and several other emotional qualities; 12 of the images were of “normal” people, places, and things, while 13 of the images portrayed people, places, or things that had been judged to be highly creepy or confusing in an earlier study.

Sure enough, the researchers discovered that being less tolerant of ambiguity and frequently having “not just right” experiences did indeed result in individuals being more easily confused and creeped out by creepy images, and these personality traits also predicted how much time the participants in the study spent looking at them. Importantly, these same personality traits were irrelevant for predicting the reactions of individuals to the “normal” images that they encountered in the study.

The study also revealed that females, overall, were more easily creeped out than males.

Practical Implications

There are some possible applications to real life for understanding the psychology behind creepiness. The technologies that we interact with on a daily basis are becoming more humanlike all the time, and we would prefer that they not be humanlike in a creepy way because we want them to be comforting and helpful rather than a source of confusion and uneasiness.

Similarly, the quickly evolving field of virtual reality (VR) can capitalize on creepiness research as a way of making VR experiences more or less creepy, depending upon the goal of the experience. The finding that one’s personality is an important determinant of how easily one may become confused or uncomfortable serves as a reminder that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to new technologies may not work out so well, and allowing the user of such technologies to calibrate the experience to their own comfort levels will be important.

Another obvious area of application can be found in the architecture of built environments designed for human use—especially spaces designed for children and senior citizens. Such spaces should be inviting and reassuring, and discovering what architectural features creep people out and why will be quite helpful.