I'm writing paper about climate change and its economic impacts on society. Is there a generally accepted technical term for "fear of the unknown" in psychology?
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The closest formal term I'm aware of is Xenophobia but that term has been primarily used to describe a fear or dislike of foreign people, so I wouldn't use it in any context other than that. I would simply use the explicit phrase fear of the unknown; general fears are often referred to in an explicit manner like that. "Fear of the unknown" written out as such is commonly used in articles as are "fear of death" etc. While phrases like "arachnophobia" are common in popular use, phobias are really only irrational and extreme fears; as such an X-phobia term is often inappropriate when not discussing irrational, specific fears on an individual basis. |
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