Ever wondered why we find thrill in terror, why a chill down the spine feels oddly satisfying? Let's delve into the paradoxical pleasure of fear, exploring the psychology behind our love for the spine-chilling and heart-stopping.
Why would anyone want to intentionally scare themselves?
There’s more to it than the “natural high” or adrenaline rush many describe
- The body does kick into “go” mode when startled or scared, amping up not only adrenaline but a multitude of chemicals that ensure your body is fueled and ready to respond
- This “fight or flight” response to threat has helped keep humans alive for millennia
What it takes to be safely scared
You have to make the choice to engage – don’t drag your best friend with you unless she is also on board
- When you engage in activities with other people, even just watching a movie, your own emotional experience is intensified
- Doing intense, exciting and thrilling things together can make them more fun and help create rewarding social bonds
- Emotions can be contagious, so when you see your friend scream and laugh, you may feel compelled to do the same
Studying fear at a terrifying attraction
To capture in real time what makes fear fun, what motivates people to pay to be scared out of their skin and what they experience when engaging with this material, we needed to gather data in the field.
- In this case, that meant setting up a mobile lab in the basement of an extreme haunted attraction outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- The more terrifying, the better: Feeling happy afterward was related to rating the experience as highly intense and scary
- Analysis of the EEG data revealed widespread decreases in brain reactivity
Coming out stronger on the other side
Fun-scary experiences could serve as an in-the-moment recalibration of what registers as stressful and even provide a kind of confidence boost
- After watching a scary movie or going through a haunted attraction, maybe everything else seems like no big deal in comparison
- Movies like “Halloween” allow people to tackle the big, existential fears we all have
