There's a fascinating psychological reason why flying makes us feel so crazy (UAL)

A United Airlines passenger was forcibly removed from a flight on Sunday. Here's how flying can contribute psychologically to feelings of anxiety.

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 (Flight/Paramount Pictures)

A passenger was dragged off of an allegedly overbooked United Airlines flight by aviation officers on Sunday after refusing to give up his seat. A video of the incident attracted international attention and prompted some to call for a boycott of United.

Although the incident was extreme, it's hardly the first time an airplane has been the scene of such troubling behavior. So what's going on in that cramped cabin that appears to make us all so tense? Are we all suffering from an undiagnosed fear of flying?

Psychologically speaking, several things are taking place on and off an airplane that can contribute to feelings of panic and anxiety — even in people who might not normally suffer from it. For one thing, while phobias like acrophobia (fear of heights) and claustrophobia (fear of closed-in spaces), are relatively rare individually, the chances that a good chunk of the passengers on a plane will suffer from at least one of them can be surprisingly high simply because airplane travel happens to tap into so many of them.

From the time we arrive at the airport (potentially triggering enochlophobia, or fear of crowds) to the moment we buckle in next to another passenger (potentially triggering xenophobia, or fear of strangers), dozens of different aspects of flying can make us feel uneasy. There's also the irrational fear of crashing, despite the fact that the chances of such an event happening are so low. And while the National Institutes of Mental Health says only about 6.5% of people have a specific phobia linked with airplane travel (also known as aviophobia), recent research suggests that the number of Americans with some kind of anxiety about flying is much higher, with some studies pegging the figure at roughly 40%.

Beyond triggering phobias, flying taps into several other more common sources of anxiety as well.

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 (Getty Images/Pablo Blazquez Dominguez)

And airlines may be causing passengers anxiety in more ways than one. A recent study published in the Journal of Travel Research suggests that last-minute seat arrangement changes — even if they involve getting bumped up to first class — can make a lot of people upset. In people who may be prone to feeling guilty, the excitement of a last-minute seat upgrade can even be cancelled out by feelings of “existential guilt” linked with being treated to a benefit they see as unearned, according to the study authors.

So next time you tell yourself to calm down about your next flight, know that it's perfectly normal to feel antsy about airplane travel. You're not crazy, and you're definitely not alone.

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