Everyone is entitled to one good scare 鈥� and it may be good for us. People who watch a lot of horror films and those who are morbidly curious about unpleasant subjects seem to be more psychologically resilient to the covid-19 pandemic, a study reveals.
鈥淗orror users tended to have less psychological distress,鈥� says Coltan Scrivner at the University of Chicago.
The research was prompted by a question from New 杏吧原创 news editor Penny Sarchet. In a Twitter conversation with horror researcher Mathias Clasen at Aarhus University in Denmark, Sarchet asked 鈥溾��.
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Scrivner, Clasen and their colleagues decided to find out. They asked 310 US volunteers which film genres they liked, including horror and other 鈥減repper鈥� genres such as post-apocalyptic and alien invasion. They also asked whether people had seen pandemic-themed films such as Contagion. The volunteers then took personality tests and a questionnaire designed to measure their : their motivation to .
Coping with covid-19
Alongside this, the volunteers were asked how well they were coping with the covid-19 pandemic, both whether they were still having positive experiences despite the crisis, and whether they were experiencing unusually severe negative states like anxiety. Participants were also asked how well-prepared they had been 鈥� for instance, whether the pandemic鈥檚 consequences took them by surprise.
Fans of horror movies were less prone to negative mental states. 鈥淲hich suggested to us, maybe with horror it鈥檚 about emotion regulation,鈥� says Scrivner. Watching scary movies 鈥渁llows me to give myself the experience of being afraid and then conquering that fear鈥�. This may be one of the underlying reasons for .
The prepper genres, which all feature society鈥檚 institutions collapsing, had an additional benefit. 鈥淲e find that same decrease in psychological distress, but you also find an increase in preparedness,鈥� says Scrivner. The team found a similar pattern for pandemic-themed movies. 鈥淧eople who鈥檝e seen none at all were much less prepared than people who said they鈥檇 seen many.鈥�
Finally, people with high levels of morbid curiosity showed a different profile. 鈥淚t really predicted positive resilience, enjoying things despite the pandemic,鈥� says Scrivner. 鈥淧eople who scored high in morbid curiosity were no different in the psychological distress, they weren鈥檛 more or less prepared, but they did exhibit more positive resilience.鈥�
This may be because morbidly curious people are doing a lot of fact-finding. 鈥淧resumably a pandemic presents a really interesting opportunity to gather lots of really cool information,鈥� says Scrivner.
Margee Kerr of the University of Pittsburgh would like to see the work peer reviewed to be sure the results are secure. Assuming they are, though, she says it鈥檚 not clear why horror fans should show this resilience. 鈥淚s it a matter of having learned better emotional regulation through viewing horror movies, or are they somehow better at emotional regulation to begin with?鈥�
It isn鈥檛 clear how useful the findings will be in practice, says Scrivner. 鈥淒o I think you could watch a bunch of horror movies and then you鈥檇 be fine for wave two of coronavirus? No. There鈥檚 so many other factors.鈥� For instance, it may be that only the real gorehounds show a meaningful increase in resilience. However, Scrivner adds that cognitive behavioural therapy also includes techniques for regulating emotions. 鈥淚t could be trainable in some ways,鈥� he says.
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