Everyone knows that EVERY antique store has those creepy, vintage handmade dolls (Yes, we also have them here) We’ve all seen Chucky from Child’s Play, Annabelle from The Conjuring or some doll-themed horror movie. Did you know that there is a phobia for this, known as pediophobia? There are also people who collect these dolls, it is a form of art after all. Here at Brossac Braderie, we will give you the answer to why these dolls are so creepy!
Fear of dolls doesn’t exist… for children
Clinical psychologist Dr.Kate Wolitzky-Taylor, faculty member in UCLA states that “people are not born scared of dolls. In fact, kids love them”. It is true, children love playing with dolls and have been doing so since the time of the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. At the time, they also served for magical, spiritual and ritual values. However, their primary scope has and still is for play and simulation of social situations.
Senior Lecturer Dr. Sarah Gerson and colleagues at Cardiff University’s Centre for Human Developmental Science actually discovered that children, regardless of sex and country, actually stimulate the neurological regions of empathy and social information processing when playing with dolls.
This is primarily because the children are creating a world of their own, solving problems and creating social situations. It nurtures both creativity and problem solving, which can translate into more emotional, academic, and social success.
So why are we so scared of them?
There are many reasons why adults are scared of vintage dolls, specifically porcelain, bisque and china dolls. There are two leading theories here:
A psychological phenomena, rooted in behavioural psychology
In childhood, dolls do not scare a person as previously said. Then, dolls are paired with things that we define as scary, like murder, scary houses, creepy voices, jumpscares etc. That then creates the association that dolls are now scary, because you learned to fear dolls. Primary sources of learning include personal expierences (watching a scary movie) or learning from others (friends narrating scary doll stories).
The fact that they look human but aren’t human
In ancient civilisations, dolls were made from clay, wood, rags and other materials. The point is, they had a human form but were easily recognised as toys. In the 1800s, they started to make them out of porcelain, bisque and china. These advancements made the dolls look much more realistic and human like.
We as humans see these dolls as near human, which we like but then their lack of facial expressions is what seperates them from us, making them creepy. This is called the “Uncanny Valley”, where they are human like in most ways but then have something very unhuman , which scares us. The same applies to robots.
To see more creepy dolls that you can add to your collection (They “shouldn’t” be cursed, don’t worry), click here.