25 Scary Phobias, Animals, & Everyday Situations 🫣😨

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Co-authored by Susan Pazak, PhD and Eric McClure

Last Updated: February 18, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Scary Phobias
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• Scary Animals
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• Scary Everyday Situations
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• Scary Things Caught on Camera
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• Where do phobias come from?
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• How to Overcome Phobias
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• Video

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Fear is an essential part of what it means to be human. We evolved the ability to sense fear as a survival mechanism—you see something scary, you naturally avoid it. So, we associate dangerous things with being scary! But we don’t really need to be on the lookout for sabertooth tigers anymore, which means we have all of these hardwired instincts to be scared of stuff, but not a lot of legit places to put them. In this article, we’ll look at where most people end up distributing those fears—from spooky animals to actual IRL events, you’re sure to find something that will send shivers up your spine. We also spoke to licensed clinical psychologist Susan Pazak, PhD for advice on how to overcome phobias and where they come from.

What things are scariest to people?

Around 1 in 5 people struggle with an intense phobia of some kind, and it’s natural for people to be scared of some things. The most common phobias include:

• A fear of flying ✈️
• A fear of dentists 🦷
• A fear of clowns 🤡
• A fear of spiders 🕷️
• A fear of the outside 🌳

Steps

Section 1 of 6:

Common & Scary Phobias

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1. 
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   Aerophobia (Fear of Flying) A fear of flying is perhaps the most common phobia on our list. It’s estimated that roughly 40% of people have a natural fear of flying, although it is one of the phobias that tends to dissipate in intensity over time as you fly more and more.

   Meet the wikiHow Expert

   Susan Pazak, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and professional life coach with more than 21 years of experience.
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   Dentophobia (Fear of Dentists) After a fear of flying, a fear of dentists is probably the second-most common phobia (it appears that up to 36% of people have a fear of dentists). It’s not that people are spooked out by anyone who went to dental school—it’s just kind of scary and unnerving to have someone poke around in your mouth with drills, spikes, and needles.
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   Agoraphobia (Fear of the Outside) People with agoraphobia get anxious about going outside, being in a crowd, or exploring open spaces. They may also struggle on public transit or in big open spaces, like movie theaters.
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   Arachnophobia (Fear of Spiders) Most people find spiders a little bit spooky, but if the fear is intense enough that it can interfere with your daily life, you may have arachnophobia. It’s estimated that up to 15% of people have arachnophobia.

   • In case you didn’t know, the vast majority of spiders are harmless. They actually eat a lot of the nasty bugs you probably don’t want around.
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   Acrophobia (Fear of Heights) A fear of heights is pretty common. To be fair to people with acrophobia, it makes sense to be a little nervous if you’re standing around edges where you fall to your death if you go over the side.
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   Ophidiophobia (Fear of Snakes) Snakes are another extremely common phobia. Like spiders, most snakes are perfectly harmless to people. Also like spiders, we totally get it if you’re spooked out by snakes.
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   Claustrophobia (Fear of Tight Spaces) If you have claustrophobia, you might be terrified of elevators, tunnels, locked rooms, or even cars. This condition can also make it difficult to get an MRI, use a public bathroom, or board a plane.
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   Coulrophobia (Fear of Clowns) It’s interesting that everyone is basically in total agreement over the fact that clowns are kind of creepy, but we still somehow continue to produce clowns as a society.

   • Fun fact: You might think that a fear of clowns is cultural, but this fear actually appears across every culture on the planet, which indicates there’s something intrinsic about clowns that makes them scary to humans.
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   Trypophobia (Fear of Holes) Does this image give you the willies? If it does, you may have trypophobia—a fear of groups of tiny holes. Interestingly, this fear is closely associated with symptoms of depressive disorders, so it may be a sign that it’s time to see a therapist if you’ve been getting spooked out by holes lately and you’re feeling kind of down.
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    Hemophobia (Fear of Blood) If someone passes out every time they get their blood drawn or horror movies trigger vomiting, they may have hemophobia. Unlike something like a fear of clowns, a fear of blood seems to often be associated with blood-related trauma when you’re growing up.
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Section 2 of 6:

Scary Animals

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1. 
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   Pacific lamprey These freaky-looking eel-like creatures are parasites that latch on and suck the blood and body fluids out of their prey. They’re also an invasive species. Luckily for you, these critters don’t want anything to do with humans, so you get a pass.
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   Giant desert centipede You’re a fan of 8–10 in (20–25 cm) centipedes, right? Big supporter of venomous legs, yeah? No? Then the giant desert centipede will probably crack your scariest animals list.
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   Tarantula hawk wasp Picture a giant wasp, the size of your entire palm, that preys on tarantulas. That’s the tarantula hawk wasp. Consider yourself blessed that their electrifying bite only affects giant spiders and not humans.
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   Japanese spider crab They’re perfectly harmless to people, but the Japanese spider crab totally looks like something from another universe. These 3.5 ft (1.1 m) long crabs really defy all expectations of what a normal crab should look like.
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   Greenland shark Chickens and horseshoe crabs get all of the jokes about being dinosaurs, but the Greenland shark really inhabits the essence of the idea. These colossal beasts live up to 500 years old, and they’re such specialized beasts that they likely haven’t evolved in millions of years. Oh, and they’re all basically blind because a parasite sucks on their eyes.
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Section 3 of 6:

Creepy Common Situations

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   Cats meowing at stuff that isn’t there Dogs barking at stuff that isn’t there is also up there, but the creep factor feels like it’s amplified if it’s a cat for some reason. What exactly are they so upset about? Is it the spirit of a dead loved one? Did someone quietly break in?
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   Strange noises in your home Ever been lying half-asleep in your bed and heard a weird footstep or a strange creak? Pure nightmare fuel. Hearing weird stuff in your home is never a sign of something good. It’s not like a happy guy crept in to leave cupcakes all over the place. At the absolute best, it’s your home settling or an animal trapped in a wall.
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   Encountering something in the woods at night If you’ve ever gone camping, you know how utterly terrifying it is to see someone emerge unexpectedly from the underbrush late at night. Even if it’s just a wayward raccoon or a hungry deer, something appearing in the night in the middle of nowhere is terrifying.
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   Realizing you might be lost If you’ve ever hiked or gone exploring on your own, you may have had that moment where it dawns on you that you aren’t sure where you are. This can be especially scary if you don’t have your phone or the weather isn’t playing nice. Thoughts can start to race through your head of dying of starvation, running into someone dangerous, etc.
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   An unexpected knock at the door We don’t care who you are. When that door knocks randomly, there’s always a little 3-5 second moment where the hair stands up on the back of your neck, and you think, “Surely I’m in danger of some kind,” before realizing it’s just a delivery.
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Section 4 of 6:

Scariest Stuff Caught on Camera

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1. 
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   The fake roadblock In 2014, a driver in Jersey City, NJ, encountered what initially looked like a nighttime work crew on the highway. In the video, they pull up, stop, and out of the darkness a strange figure emerges. You never know what kind of creeps you’ll encounter in the middle of the night!
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   The Missy Bevers suspect Missy Bevers was a yoga instructor who was murdered in a church one early morning in 2016 while setting up for class. The crazy thing is that the killer is caught on camera. In the clip, you can see the murderer wandering around the church in what looks like a fake SWAT team outfit. If that wasn’t scary enough, the killer’s behavior is really weird. They meander, poke around at stuff, and walk calmly from random room to random room as if they’re looking for something…
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   The bigfin squid In 2007, a submersible robot operated by the Shell Oil company was scouting potential drilling sites underwater when the camera captured something equal-parts awe-inspiring and spooky: a bigfin squid—on video! These rarely-seen deep-sea squid live miles below the surface of the Earth and grow up to 20 ft (6.1 m) long, giving them the appearance and overall vibe of an alien.
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   The Halloween burglars Do you have a doorbell with a camera? If so, how do you think you’d react if you took a look outside late at night to find three clowns standing still, staring your home down, before they slowly work their way around the building, trying to find a way in? Well, that’s what one family had to deal with in 2025. It’s still unclear if it was a “prank” or not. Either way, it was captured on this video.
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   The Elisa Lam elevator tape Elisa Lam was a young woman who met an unfortunate accidental end when she climbed into a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel. She was in the midst of a bipolar episode, which probably explains her strange behavior in the scary elevator footage.
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Section 5 of 6:

Where do phobias come from?

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1. Phobias come from feelings of anxiety. According to Dr. Pazak, phobias or fears are displaced on a certain object, place, or situation. When we think other areas of our life are out of control, she explains that “trying to control an external situation is a way of attempting to manage all [of the] fears and anxiety by displacing the worry and fear onto something we think we can control,” like food, flying, spiders, and elevators.

   • Dr. Pazak says that “unfortunately, this theory backfires and creates more anxiety and fear.”

Section 6 of 6:

How to Overcome Phobias

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1. Do self-soothing practices or seek therapy. Dr. Pazak notes that there are several therapeutic ways to overcome specific phobias, such as exposure therapy, flooding, and systematic sensitization. Or, simply seek coaching or therapy to talk about the phobias and identify the thought patterns driving the behaviors. Dr. Pazak says there are plenty of daily interventions you can practice too, such as:

   • Mindfulness meditation
   • Prayers to find peace
   • Repeating a mantra, like “Nothing to fear but fear itself”
   • Increasing self-confidence and self-love
   • Self-nurturing activities to soothe daily anxieties
   • Naming your worries and anxieties to increase your awareness about them
   • Being aware of fear-based, obsessive, and negative thoughts, and challenging them
   • Developing a strategy and plan to change
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