Kleptophobia, or fear of theft, can really be used to explain two distinct fears. The first is a fear of being stolen from or robbed. The second is a fear of stealing from someone else. The two fears are sometimes related and should exist simultaneously.
Causes of Kleptophobia
Both forms of kleptophobia are often, however not always, triggered by a detrimental event. For example, when you have been robbed at gunpoint, you’re at higher danger of creating a concern of being robbed. Likewise, if in case you have ever been a thief, chances are you’ll worry that you’ll fall back into previous patterns.
Either form of kleptophobia can also be rooted in inside struggles or conflicts. Society doesn’t cleanly divide into abstracts of good and evil, and defining our personal morals will be challenging. For example, most of us have been taught as children to not steal, however how many of us actually return additional change that we were given by mistake? It is frequent to justify small cheats, but simultaneously worry that this behavior may constitute stealing, or may even lead to larger and more definitive thefts.
Likewise, most people accept that business will not always be fair and sometimes people may be taken advantage of. We are likely to let small issues go in an effort to be cooperative or keep away from confrontation. Over time, however, even minimal amounts of overcharges can lead a person to feel victimized, ultimately worrying that next time we will likely be more critically taken advantage of.
