Neophobia

Neophobia is the fear of anything new, especially a persistent and abnormal fear. In its milder form, it can manifest as the unwillingness to try new things or break from routine.

In biomedical research, neophobia is often associated with the study of taste. Food neophobia is an important concern in pediatric psychology.

The word neophobia comes from the Greek νέος, neos, meaning "new, young", and φόβος, phobos, for "fear".Cainophobia comes from the Greek καινός, kainos, meaning "new, fresh". Alternative terms for neophobia include metathesiophobia, prosophobia, cainotophobia (or cainophobia), and kainophobia (or kainolophobia).

Norway rats and house mice are thought to have evolved increased levels of neophobia as they became commensal with humans because humans were routinely devising new methods (e.g., mousetraps) to eradicate them.

Neophobia is also a common finding in aging animals, although apathy could also explain, or contribute to explain, the lack of exploratory drive systematically observed in aging. Researchers argued that the lack of exploratory drive was likely due neurophysiologically to the dysfunction of neural pathways connected to the prefrontal cortex observed during aging.

Robert Anton Wilson theorized in his book Prometheus Rising that neophobia is instinctual in people after they begin to raise children. Wilson's views on neophobia are mostly negative, believing that it is the reason human culture and ideas do not advance as quickly as our technology. His model includes an idea from Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which is that new ideas, however well proven and evident, are implemented only when the generations who consider them "new" die and are replaced by generations who consider the ideas accepted and old.

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