"The point is, everybody responds to fear differently. The serotonin transporter gene determines whether or not you're easily scared. The long alele for this gene is associate with stronger serotonin production and weaker startle response. If that's the one you've got, you tend to be less anxious and harder to scare. Unlucky for me, I got stuck with the sort alele."
—Kozakura, Otherside Picnic, "Episode 4: Time, Space, and a Middle-Aged Man"
Fear. It's a perfectly normal human emotion. Yet, different people respond to fear differently. Some are very capable of balancing fear with their need to act. Others, on the other hand, are easily consumed by fear.
And some people are much, much easier to scare than others.
While there might be some overlap with Cowardly Lion, that trope relies on a person still being able to do the right thing, despite their fear. This is about people who are simply very easy to scare. It doesn't even have to be a scary situation, per se. Ghosts and goblins aren't required to scare them. Just a creepy story, a snapping twig, or a well-played prank can have these people freaking out.
They're likely to be the first ones to ask Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? because there are just so many things they're already afraid of.
Since people are largely expected to grow out of simple fears as they age, it could be a Manchild that is showing such proclivities. Of course, a seemingly tough guy might be put to shame when a simple incident, mistaken for a mortal threat, shows that they scream like a little girl. Of course, given that Most Writers Are Male, female characters tend to retain this for longer, leading to Intimacy via Horror.
Sometimes, people will deliberately scare people like this, to enjoy their reactions.
Cowards of both the "Lovable" and "Dirty" variety are both likely to be here. Likewise, people who refer to themselves as "chicken", "spineless", "yellow(bellied)", "scaredy-cat", "fraidy-cat", and "craven" are likely this. If other people refer to them by those terms, it's often to goad them into something by daring them, and if the person gives in to the dare, they're likely NOT Easy to Scare (though, ironically, they're giving in to peer pressure).
There are times when a person who is noted to be Easy to Scare will be confronted with something that SHOULD be scary by most people's standards, but they themselves turn out not to be afraid.
Compare Nervous Wreck. Compare and contrast Admitting to Fear.
Opposite of Immune to Jump Scares and Conditioned to Accept Horror. Sister trope to Prone to Tears, and implies similar things about a character's sensitivity, immaturity, and/or femininity.
Compare Absurd Phobia, where a character is easily scared by specific, mundane things.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Lucky Star: Tsukasa Hiiragi is notably very easy to scare, as Konata demonstrates when they take an overnight trip to the beach, first surprising her with a mask, then merely lying upside down in her futon with her feet sticking out and speaking in an eerie voice. Kagami, tired from their activities, asks them to knock it off and go to sleep.
- Re-Kan!: Inoue is terrified of ghosts, except for the ghost of her grandmother, whom Hibiki says is always hanging around her. Of course, Hibiki's "sixth sense" has Inoue in panic mode much of the time. Hibiki's father is the same way, which Hibiki and Inoue's classmates view as proof that they're a good couple.
- Shugo Chara!: Despite her “cool and spicy” exterior, Amu is this, being easily frightened by scary stories, ghosts, and the occult. Kukai, during a Guardian meeting Amu was invited to, even mentions this to her.
- Uta∽Kata: Ichika is noted amongst her friends for being a scaredy cat when it comes to ghost stories. Ichika notes that Manatsu isn't a ghost herself when she notices that Manatsu is also scared of ghost stories, and less than eager to participate in a Kimodameshi at camp.
Comic Strips
- Wade Duck from U.S. Acres (as well as its Animated Adaptation on Garfield and Friends) is afraid of nearly everything. Roy Rooster knows this, which is why he takes delight in scaring him.
Films — Animation
- Monsters University: In a deleted scene, the Oozma Kappa monsters (while watching a horror movie) are subjected to a cruel prank by the Roars (who make them think that the movie is coming to life around them). Johnny Worthington then taunts the Oozmas about how scared they were in front of the other fraternities and sororities, asking how they can be scarers if they're easily scared. This scene was later cut and replaced with the party prank, as they realized that the prank would be more effective if it made the Oozmas seem like they weren't scary, rather than easy to scare.
Literature
- Earth's Scariest Monsters!: Sylvia is afraid of many things, with her top four fears being darkness, ghosts, insects, and spiders. As a consequence, she's easy to scare.
- The Famous Five: Although she tries to be brave, the youngest child Anne is easily scared of many things, such as their hot-tempered Uncle Quentin, thunderstorms, or angry villains. In Five Go Off To Camp, she is terrified of what she believes is a volcano, which turns out to be a ventilation shaft for a railway tunnel, through which smoke is emerging.
- Mr. Men: Mr Jelly (Mr Nervous in the USA) is afraid of everything, such as what might happen on the next page of a book he is reading, or a dead leaf falling on his head. He is taught to count to ten to calm himself whenever he feels afraid.
- Otherside Picnic: Kozakura goes into a lengthy Expospeak Gag about how people with shorter serotonin transport genes are more prone to being scared, and that she has a very short transporter gene. Or, as Sorawo translates, Kozakura's a "scaredy cat".
- Warrior Cats: Ravenpaw was introduced as a timid and skittish young apprentice who fears his own mentor Tigerclaw, and is easily picked on. His fearful nature stems in part from watching Tigerclaw killing Redtail and the subsequent bullying he was put through to keep him quiet, but he was nervous even before this; Bluestar notes at the end of her super edition that he was scared to even leave the nursery as a kit and is easily frightened by Dustpaw pouncing at him. She hoped Tigerclaw would help him grow a spine. He does have some courageous moments, though (such as when he managed to catch a snake on Tigerclaw's orders), and mellows out significantly when he leaves ThunderClan and moves in with the barn-cat Barley.
Toys
- Transformers:
- The Triggerbot Backstreet is described as jumpy and nervous, easily agitated, and prone to jumping to incorrect conclusions from accurate observations. If at all possible, he tries to avoid direct combat, though when absolutely necessary, he will fight that fear down and fight. Unfortunately, his nervous disposition was misinterpreted as being constantly alert by Autobot high command, and so he was given the role of sentry. As long as he is paired with someone more level-headed, he performs well in the role, but on his own his jittery nature makes him a danger, not helped by how as a Triggerbot he is armed with large, powerful flip-out cannons.
- Zigzagged by Starscream. While the character has a reputation as being a Dirty Coward, the original Starscream's toy bio gave him the respectably high Courage stat of 8. Various versions of Starscream throughout the franchise do have a cowardly streak (especially when their personal well-being is at risk), but they generally aren't the type to flee at the first sign of trouble. In fact, there are times when various iterations of Starscream demonstrate why they're normally the Decepticon second-in-command, such as Transformers: Prime's Starscream becoming a Dangerous Deserter for a notable length of time, Galaxy Force Starscream becoming a dangerous third party between the Autobots and Decepticons fighting, and most famously ''Marvel Comics Starscream's Underbase-fueled rampage where he massacred both Autobot and Decepticon armies.
Video Games
- Commander Keen: In Episode 3: Keen Must Die!, one of the creatures encountered on Vorticon homeplanet is a tiny, bipedal creature called Foobs. They are harmless to Keen, and in run away in fright if Keen so much as approaches them. If Keen does catch up with one, they (harmlessly) explode of fright.
- Cult of the Lamb: Cultists with the Cowardly personality trait are terrified of almost anything, including you, the cult leader. You can either repeatedly reassure them for minor loyalty boosts until they overcome their fears (and lose the trait)... or bully them for large loyalty rewards — at least until they grow so scared that they run away from the cult.
- Deltarune: Noelle Holiday is very easily frightened, to the point where she has her own dedicated shrieking sound effect. It's played with a bit as she LIKES being scared, which is why she quickly forgives Kris for playing pranks on her, and is a big part of why she's so head-over-heels for Susie.
- Genshin Impact: Xiangling is this when it comes to her encounters with Hu Tao, as explained by the latter when asked about the former. In fact, Hu Tao adores people who are this trope in the same line.
- Super Mario Bros.: Luigi, Mario's brother, became a Lovable Coward by way of Divergent Character Evolution. As such, he's extremely easy to scare:
- In Luigi's Mansion and its sequels, which confirmed Luigi's cowardice, the green-clad plumber is pretty much in a state of utter panic over the course of each game. The fact that he's able to power through to save his brother and friends is taken as a sign of his Undying Loyalty.
- In the original Luigi's Mansion, Luigi's cowardly nature is used for an Everyone Has Standards moment—one of the Portrait Ghosts, Uncle Grimmly, is shown to be so utterly pathetic that even the younger Mario brother is completely unfazed by him.
- Luigi's cowardice shows up again in the Mario & Luigi series—in most cases he has to literally be dragged into the adventure because he'd much rather stay at home and hide under the blankets.
- In Super Mario Galaxy, Mario receives a letter from Luigi saying that he's been trapped in the Ghostly Galaxy and is too frightened to free himself from the Boos. Mario must use the Boo Mushroom to transform into a ghost himself to help save the day, and Luigi's shown to be utterly terrified despite knowing it's Mario. In the New Game Plus, Luigi becomes playable—and he looks scared of himself while using the same power-up.
- In Luigi's Mansion and its sequels, which confirmed Luigi's cowardice, the green-clad plumber is pretty much in a state of utter panic over the course of each game. The fact that he's able to power through to save his brother and friends is taken as a sign of his Undying Loyalty.
Visual Novels
- Super Danganronpa 2: Kazuichi Soda is very jumpy and tends to be the first student to panic and scream in fear in any given situation.
Western Animation
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: Despite his name, Courage is very easily startled. Eustace, Muriel's Jerkass husband, often messes with the dog by scaring him with a monster mask. However, this behavior is justified in that the little farm the three of them live on is constantly attracting attention from supernatural forces, most of which Courage is forced to deal with completely on his own.
- Earthworm Jim: This is the hat of the Planet of Hats known as "the planet of Easily Frightened People". As the name suggests, the population is terrified of anything and everything, with cries such as "Aaah! Something green!" and "Aaah! Something not green!" being common. Psy-crow, being a Card-Carrying Villain, loves the place (though even he sometimes admits it's possible to have too much of a good thing).
- Garfield and Friends: Wade Duck of the U.S. Acres segments is afraid of everything—and that's Not Hyperbole. Among the things we see him panic about are letters from a mailbox, trees, sunlight, flying (hence why he never goes south for the winter), fortune cookies, swimming (which is why he always wears an inner tube despite being a duck) and the very idea of ladybugs. Roy delights in pranking Wade by simply suggesting that something mundane is nearby, which inevitably sends the poor fowl into a panic.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In "Bully Boogie" and the movie, Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, the Boogeyman’s attempts to scare people don’t scare anyone but the wimpy nerd, Irwin. The Boogeyman is mocked by others for how he isn’t scary, and Grim and Mandy say that they’ve seen butterflies and marshmallows scarier than him, but Irwin is so timid that he finds Boogie terrifying.
- Miraculous Ladybug: In "Horrificator", the class attempts to make a horror movie, but with most of the girls being employed in behind-the-scenes roles, the lead goes to Mylène, who is terrified of so many things that they can barely get through any scenes between her and the "monster', even though the monster is played by her boyfriend. Eventually, her fear causes her to become Akumatized into Horrificator, who becomes bigger and stronger the more everyone else fears her.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Fluttershy is once noted by Rainbow Dash to be "scared of her own shadow" (and indeed, at that moment we see her recoiling from her own shadow in broad daylight). That being said, if you put her friends in danger instead of merely herself, she is capable of using "The Stare", which has been noted to make even full-sized dragons back down. Fluttershy is even scared of heights, despite being a pegasus pony who can fly. She tends to squeak or let out a high-pitched scream when spooked, and once fainted like a goat just from a stray leaf landing on her back. As such, Nightmare Night, Equestria's equivalent of Halloween, is Fluttershy's least favorite holiday, and she tends to spend it holed up at home with her animal friends. The trope is subverted when it comes to animals, however, as even a ferocious manticore or huge bear are easily tamed by her kindness.
- Penfold from Danger Mouse is scared of his own shadow. All DM has to do to distract him is yell "Spiders!" and Penfold will go into panic mode in zero seconds.
- Two-year-old Chuckie Finster from Rugrats is scared of nearly everything, from clowns to the guy on the oatmeal box. Angelica knows this, which is why she takes delight in scaring him. One episode of the original 1991 series, "The Big Sneeze," plays with this; Chuckie is suffering from an allergy attack, so the other babies believe that they have to scare it out of him, like the hiccups. Their attempts at making scary faces fail, and Phil says "Great; the one time he's not scared!" Chuckie assures Phil that he isn't always afraid, but then he freaks out when he sees his reflection in a potted plant.
- Scooby-Doo: Shaggy and Scooby are notorious scaredy-cats. Scooby, in one episode, even acted like a "pussy cat" to demonstrate that he was a scaredy-cat. That being said, the pair are also the Cowardly Lions of the group, being quite able to step up when the situation calls for it, although they're much more eager to flee in terror. In a crossover comic with Green Lantern, Sinestro is shocked when a Yellow Power Ring, which instinctively travels to the nearest entity that causes the most fear in others, bonds with the pair and turns them into Yellow Lanterns—and Shaggy and Scooby explain that they scare themselves silly constantly.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Scaredy Pants", it is revealed that Spongebob is frightened by just about everybody on Halloween. The townspeople know this and happily exploit his cowardice with costumes and practical jokes.
- Transformers: Animated: One of Starscream's clones (dubbed Skywarp by the showrunners) represents Starscream's Dirty Coward tendencies. As such, pretty much anything and everything frightens him.
