Fear of mice

Fear of mice and rats is one of the most common specific phobias. It is sometimes referred to as musophobia (from Latin mus for "mouse") or murophobia (a coinage from the taxonomic adjective "murine" for the Muridae family that encompasses mice and rats), or as suriphobia, from the French souris, meaning mouse.^[1]

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The phobia, as an unreasonable and disproportionate fear, is distinct from the reasonable concern about rats and mice contaminating food supplies, which has been universal to all times, places, and cultures where stored grain attracts rodents, which then consume or contaminate the human food supply.

An exaggerated, phobic fear of mice and rats has traditionally been depicted as a stereotypical trait of women, with numerous pre-feminism books, cartoons, television shows, and films portraying hysterical women screaming and jumping atop chairs or tables at the sight of a mouse e.g. Mammy Two Shoes in Tom and Jerry. Despite the gender-stereotyped portrayals prior to the 21st century, Western musophobia has always been experienced by individuals of both sexes.

In many cases a phobic fear of mice is a socially induced conditioned response, combined with (and originated in) the startle response (a response to an unexpected stimulus) common in many animals, including humans, rather than a real disorder. At the same time, as it is common with specific phobias, an occasional fright may give rise to abnormal anxiety that requires treatment. Fear of mice may be treated by any standard treatment for specific phobias.

Elephants and mice

There is a common Western folk belief that elephants are afraid of mice. The earliest reference to this claim is probably by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, book VIII. As translated by Philemon Holland (1601), Of all other living creatures, they [elephants] cannot abide a mouse or a rat. While Discovery Channel's MythBusters has proven the myth as plausible with wild elephants (without fully confirming nor debunking it), numerous zoos and zoologists showed elephants can be conditioned not to react. Regardless, the myth of elephantine murophobia remains the basis of various jokes and metaphors.

Trivia

Irrational fear of rats is an element of the plot of the Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Ironically, most of Nineteen Eighty-Four coincided with the Year of the Rat.

In 2002 the National Geographic Channel aired the program Phobia: Musophobia^[2] as part of a television series about various phobias.^[3]

References

1. ^ How To Treat Suriphobia undated page at eHow.com. Accessed August 10, 2007.
2. ^ Phobia: Musophobia credits and production data. National Geographic website, 2002. Accessed August 10, 2007.
3. ^ Phobia: New Series Goes Inside the World of Fear. National Geographic News September 30, 2002. Accessed August 10, 2002.