Fear of mice and rats

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.

At the same time, as is common with specific phobias, an occasional fright may give rise to abnormal anxiety that requires treatment.

The standard treatment of animal phobia is systematic desensitization, and this can be done in the consulting room, or in hypnosis.

MythBusters performed an experiment in which, indeed, multiple elephants did attempt to avoid a mouse, showing there may be some basis for this belief.

[3] An exaggerated, phobic fear of mice and rats has traditionally been depicted as a stereotypical trait of women, with numerous books, cartoons, television shows, and films portraying women screaming and jumping onto chairs or tables at the sight of a mouse.