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
Journal of Abnormal Psychology states of mind can only be judged to be "normal" or not against a background of the prevailing social norms of the particular time and place. In 1925, this was simplified to "Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology", the title it would go by for the next 40 years. Upon Prince's death in 1929, the journal was purchased by the American Psychological Association and the editorship fell to Henry T. Moore, the president of Skidmore College. In 1938, the prominent personality theorist Gordon W. Allport became the journal's editor. In 1965, the name reverted to simply the "Journal of Abnormal