Why would anyone choose to feel fear? Researchers uncovered an unexpected psychological payoff.
Excitement is the main reason people choose to watch horror movies.
People also like to watch horror movies in a group, so it is also an excuse to socialise.
The scariest types of movies are those that rely on psychological horror.
People find threats that were only imagined, rather than seen, the most frightening.
Professor Lauri Nummenmaa, study co-author, said:
“This latter distinction reflects two types of fear that people experience.
The creeping foreboding dread that occurs when one feels that something isn’t quite right, and the instinctive response we have to the sudden appearance of a monster that make us jump out of our skin.”
Anticipating threat
The conclusions come from a study of 37 people who watched horror movies while their brains were scanned.
Brain scans showed that as anxiety increased, regions involved in sight and hearing became more active while people anticipated a threat.
After the shock, areas of the brain important for processing the emotions were active, along with those that help us evaluate threats and make decisions.
Dr Matthew Hudson, the study’s first author, explained:
“Therefore, our brains are continuously anticipating and preparing us for action in response to threat, and horror movies exploit this expertly to enhance our excitement.”
The scariest movie
To choose the scary movies used in the study, 216 people were asked about the scariest movie they had seen.
Here is the list, with the most scary movie at the top.
- The Devil’s Backbone
- The Wailing
- The Conjuring
- REC 2
- Insidious
- The Exorcist
- Goodnight Mommy
- A Chinese Ghost Story
- The Conjuring 2
- Under The Shadow
The Conjuring 2 and Insidious were used in the study because relatively few people recruited had seen them.
Conceptual consumption
Excitement is not the only reason people watch scary movies.
Some theorists put it down to the drive for conceptual consumption.
We live in a society that consumes not only products, but also ideas, information and experiences.
We’re always on the lookout for tasty new morsels of information and unusual experiences to add to our ever-expanding mental collections.
Over the years all sorts of explanations have been offered for why people voluntarily expose themselves to scary movies: that there is a certain type of pleasure mixed in with the fear; that they are relieved when it’s over; that they enjoy the ‘rush’ while knowing there is no threat.
But as any horror nut will tell you, there’s more to it than that.
When people choose a scary movie, they are choosing more than just the experience itself.
They know the movie will frighten them, but there is a clear payoff in conceptual consumption.
It’s not just bragging rights, they want to ‘possess’ the experience.
It’s also about self-image.
People want to view themselves, and be viewed by others, as the sort of people who seek out diverse experiences.
The study was published in the journal NeuroImage (Hudson et al., 2020).
