Why Does It Feel So Good To Be Scared?

Plenty of things are scary these days, so why do people pay good money to see horror movies and go to 'haunted' houses? Learn why psychologists say these fearful experiences are helpful in today's classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/why-love-to-be-scared.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with another classic episode from
our archives. I wanted to air this one because we
are dead in the midst of spooky season, though I
personally believe every season should be at least a little spooky,
and so that got me thinking again about why lots

(00:23):
of us love being scared. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel
Bam Here on the menu of what's scary these days,
there are many threats to choose, from mass shootings and
uncertain political and economic future, nuclear war, spiders, so it
begs the question why would anyone want more? Why do people,

(00:46):
in fact pay money to be scared when there's already
enough frightening stuff served up daily. But that's exactly what
tons of people do. We Horror fans seek out horror movies,
scary books, and haunted houses. We pay to consume year,
and selling fear is an increasingly profitable pursuit. For instance,
the number of horror movies released in nineteen six only

(01:08):
seven sixty two. The top twenty five horror films of
twenty seventeen, including Stephen King's It Sold, combined a hundred
and forty million tickets and grossed more than nine hundred
and twenty million dollars. But this is nothing new. Since
nineteen sixty, horror movies have taken more than twenty four
billion dollars of our hard earned money at the box office,

(01:31):
adjusting for inflation. It's a big business antony haunted house industry,
and yes we can call it an industry now is
also capitalizing. It grossed more than three hundred million dollars
in amusement parks another place to find heart racing attractions
that scare so many annually serve three hundred and seventy
five million people in North America alone. Of course, this

(01:54):
brand of fear served up by horror flicks, thrill rides,
and even haunted houses is a specific and in fact
different form of fear than what someone feels or deals
with if they're mugged or chased by wild boars. And
that is where we can find the answer to today's question,
why do we do this to ourselves? First, it's important
to know that there is a competing overload of various

(02:17):
definitions and associated nuances of fear. Lots of people study it,
lots of people have opinions We'll break it down into
two simple types, capital A anxiety and capital f fear.
Anxiety is what keeps us up at night. It's often
experienced as dread, worry, uncertainty, nervousness, apprehension, and specifically, it

(02:40):
focuses the mind on possible future events that might happen
but have not happened yet, anything from nuclear war or
the end of democracy, to the injury or death of
loved ones, a terrible break up, the loss of finances, ETCETERA.
Fear that is fright, horror, terror, or panic is the
much more straightforward frenemy. It derives from what is right

(03:03):
in front of us, right now, an immediate threat to
our safety. This could be standing in front of a
crowd for a speech, an unfriendly dog running straight for us,
or that moment when we accidentally walk through a spider web.
Not anxiety about that possibly happening, but that actually happening.
It causes significant near instantaneous fight or flight biological changes

(03:24):
in us. But further, in attempting to understand why someone
would want to experience something like fear, we also need
to acknowledge that it contains a subcategory which brings about
similar symptoms but with mostly enjoyable outcomes. Margie Key is
a sociologist who studies fear and the author of the
books Scream. She and her colleague Greg Seagal, PhD, the

(03:47):
director for the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh,
have come up with an academic description for this subcategory,
voluntary engagement with negative high arousal stimuli, or in other words,
going to a scary movie or haunted house and while
allowing ourselves to feel the biological thrills of being scared.

(04:07):
As part of this, the overall experience can lead to
deeper meaning in our lives. In some cases, it can
even provide some therapeutic value for those experiencing anxiety. Care
says that experiencing fun scary can give us a sense
of mastery over it that can feel very gratifying. Here's
a chance to feel like we've got it all within
our control. Here's how it works. Step one, we choose

(04:31):
to experience a scary activity. This step perhaps the most important,
frames our entire experience. By exhibiting agency to face something scary,
we're acknowledging that we are in control of it. We
also realize the safety inherent in this that if we
walk into a haunted house, we're not going to be murdered,
not really right. Step two, something unexpected startles or unsettles us,

(04:56):
like in The Blair Witch Project when someone is standing
in a very dark corner, or The Shining when ghostly
twins demand that we come play with them forever end ever,
or in any number of slasher flicks when the protagonist
realizes that the killer's calls are coming from inside the house.
The original reference to that maybe when a stranger calls
by the way, good trivia. At any rate, we're on edge,

(05:18):
which brings us two. Step three, we experience fight or flight.
Danger stimuli is received by our brain and our sympathetic
nervous system kicks into gear. This is what kept the
Cave people away from sabertoothed lions. Our bodies are flooded
with adrenaline, dopamine, oxytacin, and endorphins. Our heart rate, blood
pressure in breathing increase, We sweat, we get goose bumps.

(05:39):
In some cases, we may scream, involuntarily, jump or run
for the hills. Don't worry, it's all completely natural. Care says.
This is the pedal to the metal and all systems go,
but in a safe environment, one in which we choose
to experience. It's important to note that this is much
different than facing real danger, and that's what makes it fun.

(06:00):
Care said, even deciding to do scary, this is the
protective frame we've created for ourselves. In our mind. We
are being open to engage with this material and suspend
our disbelief. It creates a different experience than if we were, say,
mugged at random. Our framing of the situation is then
going to be with that. In the context, screams mean
fun and not fear, which leads us to step four.

(06:24):
We experience satisfaction on a biological level. Our parasympathetic nervous
system kicks in and it brings everything back down to
normal heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, sweating, and that urge
to run far, far away. Care said, this can feel
very relaxing. It's the rest and digest period. We're safe.
We can sit with that and reap the benefits. So

(06:46):
step five. Those benefits we share in the experience and
build relationships. Care said of hunted house, horror movie and
roller coaster excursions. These experiences are often linked with friends
and family. We attend with them, were building strong bonds
and a shared camaraderie that in itself can be really gratifying.
It's the stuff that nostalgia is built from. So why

(07:07):
do we choose to experience certain scary things? The rush, sure,
but also to make our lives feel more meaningful, to
make memories. Care also notes that a common therapy for
those who experience anxiety, that other brand of fear that
consumes many of us these days, is to do something
scary enough but ultimately safe, to activate your sympathetic nervous system.

(07:29):
She said, It's a physical sensation that feels good. It
gives you a mental pause. You become grounded in your body,
fully distracted by something in your environment, and ultimately you
realize that you survived something. You set a challenge and
you survived, which brings gratification. These days will take all
the help we can get, So what's your favorite scary movie?

(07:57):
Today's episode is based on the article why is so
Good to Be Scared? On houst works dot com written
by Jamie Allen. Brainstuff is production of I Heart Radio
in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it's produced by
Tyler Clang For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
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