Why men of 35 are most happy to fly

By John Higginson, Metro

Last updated at 09:05 06 July 2004


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Men and women who fear flying have different reasons for their phobia, it seems.

Women tend to be afraid of crashing and losing control of their emotions.

Men, on the other hand, are afraid because they cannot control an airplane and fear heights.

Knowing these differences may help hone treatment, says psychologist Lucas van Gerwen, who treats nervous flyers at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

He believes up to 40 per cent of adults are afraid of flying and, in studying 5,000 cases, has identified four distinct groups.

The least phobic are men aged about 35, he discovered. Their concern springs from not being in control of the aircraft and worries something might go wrong.

Slightly more phobic are women under 35, who have 'social fears'. They worry about other people and events, such as terrorists hijacking the plane.

They also fear losing control, perhaps shouting or screaming uncontrollably. More worried still are women aged 35 to 54, Mr Van Gerwen says. They tend to have an underlying fear of confined spaces.

They are most afraid when plane doors close and more likely to have panic attacks on board.

But those with the greatest fear are older than 54 - particularly men. They combine a fear of heights with a need to be in control and are prone to panic attacks.

'The older people were more fearful of heights. That really surprised us,' said Prof Van Gerwen.

The findings would help improve treatment of the phobia, he added.

However, therapist Andrew Cunningham of the National Phobics Society disagreed, saying that while it might be 'absolutely valid' to have such distinctions, it was unclear how it would help.

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