Horror films and fairground haunted houses may be enjoyable because they let us overcome simulated threats in a safe space, so we can learn how to cope with negative experiences in real life.
To better understand how we experience horror, Mathias Clasen at Aarhus University in Denmark and his colleagues haveĀ been studying how people cope with gory surprises. They recruited 280 visitors at a commercial haunted house in Vejle, Denmark, which was set inĀ aĀ dilapidated factory where 30Ā rooms had been designed to target different fears. For instance, there were dark, claustrophobic spaces and rooms containing actors in zombie make-up.
Before they entered the building in groups, each visitor was asked to choose to focus either on minimising or increasing their fear throughout the experience. The team then asked the visitors about the mental tactics they used.
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Those who tried to maximise their fear said they concentrated on the things meant to frighten them, instead of looking away or thinking about something else. They also told themselves that the situation was really dangerous, and allowed themselves to scream, which Clasen says can make you feel more frightened. Those who tried to lessen their fears did the opposite.
But both groups had one response in common: they got closer to others in their group, sometimes holding hands. Clasen says the adrenaline junkies may have done this to experience more fear vicariously through others, while those intent on feeling less fear may have been looking for comfort. āIt was striking that the same gesture ofĀ seeking physical proximity canĀ work in those diametrically opposed ways,ā he says.
āPeople who enjoy horror may seek it out because it helps them feel a sense of mastery over their fearsā
It is something of a double-sided coin, says Garriy Shteynberg at the University of Tennessee. āThe more you can assure yourself that youāre actually safe through the presence of others, the more you can focus on the stimulus, let yourself focus on the demon and get afraid,ā he says.
At the end of the experiment, the thrill-seekers reported feeling more fear, and . āWhen people report that they were more scared, they may not mean they were scared for their life, but enjoying a high state of [emotional] arousal, rather than pure fear,ā says Shteynberg.
In another recent study, ClasenĀ and his team analysed the personality traits of more than 1000 people in North America who enjoy horror entertainment.
They found that people who like horror films are more likely toĀ score highly for openness toĀ experience, a personality traitĀ linked to intellect and imagination. Those who scored highly for agreeableness were .
Read more: Why fairy tales are really scary tales
āI was glad to find that peopleĀ who seek out horror areĀ people who like to be intellectually stimulated,ā says Clasen. āI very often run into genre prejudiceĀ ā people who think horror equals stupid slasher films from the 80sĀ ā but the horror genre is so much more.ā
Clasen and his team believe that people who seek out and enjoy horror may do so because it helps them feel a sense of mastery or control over their fears. Before weĀ had movies or books to scare ourselves witless, this emotional practice could have happened through oral storytelling. And of course, Clasen says, the human brain makes its own horror stories in the form of nightmares that can simulate threats (seeĀ āBad dreams train your brainā, below).
But the emotional usefulness ofĀ scary surprises may lessen as we get older. The team found thatĀ older people are less likely toĀ enjoy horror than younger people, even though they find it just as scary. Clasen suggests this may be because the older we get, the less likely we are to benefit from simulated terror.
Bad dreams train your brain
Lampros Perogamvros at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and his colleagues asked 89 people to keep a dream diary for a week andĀ then showed them a series of unpleasant pictures. The participants who had experienced frequent nightmares showed less fear-associated activity in their brains when shown these nasty images. They also had more activity in a brain region thought to be involved in .
This suggests that people who often have nightmares are better atĀ acknowledging that frightening images canāt harm them.
The team writes that bad dreams may allow us to rehearse threatening scenarios in a safe environment, enabling us to handle such events better when they actually occur.
Yvaine Ye
