What the Heck is Automatonophobia?

 

Akeel Dixon

Mrs. Rodems

Nonfiction Writing

4/15/2026

Prompt: What are your fears and phobias?

What the Heck is Automatonophobia?

Arachnophobia, Nyctophobia, and Achrophobia, are the fears of spiders, the dark/night, and heights, are common fears for many people. However, I have a fear called Automatonophobia and it is known as the fear of humanoid figures such as, mannequins, dolls, wax figures, and animatronics/robots. I undergo this fear when I see specifically humanoid figures like mannequins and dolls. Looking at who I am now, ever since I learned about this fear, it appears to stem from my fear of social anxiety when interacting with people.

The earliest I remember having this fear as a child was when I would go to clothing stores with my mom, in order to buy school clothes for our family. Because clothing stores which have mannequins everywhere, I assumed they were catalysts for my phobia. And I remember having a specific dream when I was younger that mannequins had come to life and that they were trying to attack me. At the time, this seemed to confirm my theory; so I looked upon this dream as the juncture when my automatonophobia had been engraved into my mind. However, upon reflection of myself, I now understand where this fear truly comes from.

One day, I was conversing with my dad and my brother, and we were talking about our phobias. I explained that I never really felt like freaking out over common fears people had. But upon more reflection I admitted that I resonated with how Amari felt about spiders when I encountered mannequins. The way I described the feeling was “I’m afraid that they’ll become animate and touch me, and they also look a lot like people which I find creepy. It makes me just want to move away from them as far and fast as possible.” Once I had stated how these objects made me feel I put the dots together and thought, “I struggle a lot with social anxiety and public speaking, so what if that fear of speaking with other human beings has made me afraid of things that look similar to them.” Once that conversation was over I looked into what the phobia was called and learned about Automatonophobia. Upon researching the phobia, I felt enlightened because I always like discovering new things about everyone.

My parents have helped me with my ability to speak with others, as they are communication professors. However, my problem wasn’t how I talk, it was more so my confidence when talking. Once I became confident that most people won’t judge me harshly, and that mannequins are just inanimate objects these fears became much easier to handle. It is still incredibly hard for me to look upon them, but I still don’t panic in my head or spaz out as much anymore. When I was extremely young I was extroverted according to my parents, but when I reached kindergarten or 1st grade, it shifted, and I became a lot more introverted and reserved. However I don’t hate this fear or my personality as it’s just who I am, even if I used to show more emotion and be more expressive. I need to accept who I am and be confident in myself. If that means accepting this fear then that’s okay with me. 

Even if I continue to have this unique fear it is another look into who I am. A way me and others can understand who Akeel Dixon is, a person who can change and has changed over time. While many people consider their fears to be their weakness, I've learned that they can also be our greatest resource at looking at ourselves introspectively; which allows us to empathize with each other. Once someone is able to trust me and I can reciprocate their trust I would like to know their fears to help them through their phobia, but also because I want to get to know them better as people.

Feedback:

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I know it’s a rough draft so grammar or spelling errors could be absent