Professor's weather expertise highlighted on TV segment

November 20, 2015 | Kristen B. Morales | Permalink | Media Mention

Fear of lightning? Fear of snow? Fear of the moon?

They all are legitimate fears, and they all are topics studied by Alan Stewart, an associate professor in the Department of Counseling and Human Development Services.

Stewart's expertise was recently highlighted on a recent Weather Channel segment by correspondent Dave Malkoff that looked at Stewart's research into people's reactions to the weather.

"People manifest fear of the weather in different ways," said Stewart in the segment, which then addressed several weather-related phobias and their root causes.

And for those of you keeping track at home, fear of lightning is astraphobia; fear of the snow — which, said Stewart, can happen of you associate a bad memory with snow, such as injury — is chionophobia. Fear of the moon is known as selenophobia and fear of the dark is also called achluophobia.