The official and medical name for people with a fear of strangers is Xenophobia. This not only covers people who have a fear of strangers, but also for people afraid of foreigners and other people different to themselves. Xeno means a guest or stranger and phobia means to have a fear.

The fear of foreigners and people different to ones self can be regarding anybody from a different culture to your own, people with different personalities, higher levels of confidence or just somebody who believes in different things to yourself. People speaking in a foreign language can also cause alarm for those suffering with this phobia or fear and will always give a cause for alarm.

Xenophobia is something not decided on, but more like a natural instinct to the person holding the fear. People feeling these emotions strongly feel genuinely that other people who are different to themselves in any shape or form could be something to be wary of, so they usually either confront or back well away from the potential danger.

There are many Xenophobics who suffer in such an extreme way that it causes them to become nasty and violent towards others. They can last out and say rude and racist remarks. The majority of sufferers, however will stay calm and deal with it away from others in a safe place.

It is extremely common in tribes across the world for this fear to still show strongly, mainly because they aren’t as exposed to strangers as we are in the Western world. Tribes can fight to the death if they find each other too different.

Hitler is the most famous person to have fought and killed over this fear. It is thought that he genuinely was scared of people different to himself and in retaliation had them all killed as history bears witness. This is probably one of the very most extreme cases of such issues.

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