fear of change
Resisting the unfamiliar
Fear of change is anxiety or resistance toward new circumstances, unfamiliar situations, or disruption of established routines.
The phrase describes a common human tendency to prefer the known over the unknown, even when change might bring improvement: His fear of change kept him in a dead-end job for years.
The clinical term is metathesiophobia, though the plain phrase is far more common in everyday speech.
- neophobiaAversion to new things
- resistanceCapacity to withstand force
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
- comfort zonePsychological ease boundary
- creature of habitSomeone bound by patterns
stagnation · rigidity · set in stone · uncertainty · dread · avoidance · clinging · familiar · routine · stubbornness · tradition · inertia · analysis paralysis · paralysis · hesitation · cold feet · denial · nostalgia
- phobiasphobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, bibliophobia, acrophobia
- changeflux, transformation, metamorphosis, alteration, transitions
- Comfort Zonehome, bedroom, routine, daily rituals, close friends
- narrow-mindednessnarrow-mindedness, narrowness, close-mindedness, closed-mindedness, close-minded
fear of changeadventurousness
Eagerness for risky pursuits
neophilia · thrill-seeking · novelty-seeking · wanderlust · restlessness
fear of changeadaptability
Ability to adjust readily
flexibility · resilience · open-mindedness · equanimity · acceptance
fear, fears, feared, fearing, fearful, fearfully, fearfulness, fearless, fearlessly