Explaining how they gauged whether a job was creepy or not, they explained that it was based on people’s reactions; they would often find their trigger response to be “both unpleasant and confusing”, and it “may be accompanied by physical symptoms such as feeling cold or chilly”.

With that in mind, what was the job that left people feeling the most creeped out?

Yup, you guessed it; clowns topped the chart as the creepiest job at all – which should come as no surprise, considering the spate of ‘Killer Clowns’ that have been spotted across the UK and the USA of late.

They were followed closely by taxidermists and sex shop owners.

However, some of the ‘creepy’ jobs unveiled by scientists at Knox College in Illinois were very unexpected – such as, for example, the humble writer. Although presumably this is the fault of The Shining, Misery, Sinister, 1408, Barton Fink and the like (indeed, it seems that creepy writers are something of a trope in the horror genre: go figure!).

The 10 creepiest jobs and careers in the world, according to science