Can sims get Paranoid without Paranoid trait, because I don't have StrangerVille installed

well if anything I now realize my sims are not nearly scared and paranoid enough on daily and I will now go torment them :lol:

sorry Goths your house is going back haunted mode
and yes Alexander you will grow up paranoid

These two screenshots are very old, they are from my other computer that is packed away.

We have all seen the running scared towel animation
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/f5/misty4m/10-24-19_6-17-35_PM.png

This sim I know she is a paranoid sim because she is part of a paranoid group I created when I was playing strangerville on my other computer, she was paranoid, and her bar was purple.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/f5/misty4m/08-03-21_4-28-14_PM(1).png

"SnaveXs;c-18155395" wrote:
I wonder what made them scared.

All I saw was paranoid, I created many paranoid groups on my other computer.

"somewhsome;c-18155393" wrote:

"misty4m;c-18155385" wrote:

"Simmingal;c-18155381" wrote:
talking to self shifty eyes and looking behind shoulder is paranoid

running around is scared

i think they might have added looking behind to scared too actually cause i do remember my non paranoid sims doing that

They did everything a paranoid sim do in strangerville, walk up to another one and scare them and other sims have to calm them down, they walked fast and started looking around them like paranoid sims do in strangerville.

Yeah, exactly like @Simmingal writes, it's scared emotion, not the paranoid trait, 100%. When Strangerville just came out, there was no such thing as "walk up to another one and scare them and other sims have to calm them down", even paranoid sims didn'd do that, because it was added with a scared emotion in 2021.
Probably now paranoid sims/sims in Strangerville are scared more often than others, that's why you think it's because of the trait. But it's not.

I created three paranoid groups with George Cahill being the leader of the group when I played strangerville on my other computer, they run the same when they are paranoid, and they often look around and walk really fast up to another sims hand in the air with purple bar.

They didn't look scared to me; they had the same trait as George in my game and not of a scared sim

When they're running like that, they're generally in the Scared emotion. Those are the animations for the Scared emotion, which was added to the base game.

Purple bar means they're scared.

That's scared emotion, the new emotion added with pre-Paranormal patch. This causes sims to act like that.
Paranoid sims look around in every emotion, but they don't run panicked. One of the pictures even showed a sim doing something only scared sims can do.

Now, to the next mystery: what made them scared?

Let's take into account the packs you own:

"misty4m;c-18155371" wrote:

"SnaveXs;c-18155366" wrote:
How was the weather? Do you have Seasons? They usually get scared hearing thunder, lightning and they'll start running around the lot to hide somewhere but they don't actually unless you press on a bed to hide under covers.

The only ones I have installed right now is:

Discover University
Parenthood
Movie Hangout
Toddler
Throwback Fit Kit

This means thunderstorm isn't the cause.

Taking a look at the pictures, this takes place in Willow Creek.

So, I have three theories.

1. The most likely true theory is that one sim arrived with Scared emotion, and used "Scream Incoherently" interaction, which will make the other sim scared when it fails.
2. Second theory is that there was a ghost (I don't know how it got there) that possessed an object in a large group of sims, causing them to be scared.
3. The third and the most unlikely theory is that the room has scary ambiance. I don't know what causes it, but I think we can safely say that's not it.

Not sure why it's a big mystery. The moodlet in the bottom left will tell you exactly what it is.

No. The Paranoid Trait came with Strangerville. However, sims can have fear because it was put in the patch in the Base just before Paranormal came out.

@misty4m I can confirm what others are saying here. I play with a sim who has the "paranoid" trait. He does not do any of the actions you are describing, unless he is in a scared mood.

The actions you are describing happen with the "scared" emotion. Any sim (with any traits) can get in a scared mood and behave that way. And sims who are in a scared mood can make other sims become scared. The scared emotion was added to the base game, and does not have anything to do with Strangerville.