Fear of mice Fear of mice Fear of mice and rats is one of the most common specific phobias. It is sometimes referred to as musophobia (from Greek "μῦς" "mouse") or murophobia (a coinage from the taxonomic adjective "murine" for the family Muridae that encompasses mice and rats), or as suriphobia, from French "souris", "mouse". The phobia, as an unreasonable and disproportionate fear, is distinct from reasonable concern about rats and mice contaminating food supplies, which may potentially be universal to all times, places, and cultures where stored grain attracts rodents, which then consume or contaminate the food supply. In many cases a
Women's fear of crime and victimization rates. A 1998 study in Glasgow, Scotland, found a gender disparity in fear of crime levels smaller than what is generally accepted. The study also found that men and women with similar fear levels tended to use similar reasoning to explain their fear of crime or lack of fear, although men's and women's fear appeared in different situations (men tended to be more often fearful about property crime, whereas women were more fearful about violent crime). A 2010 Turkish study using a large nationwide sample confirmed that women expressed significantly higher levels of fear of crime than men.