The horror paradox: Why things that scare us can make us happy

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Why do things that make us shriek in horror also make many of us come back for more? It is a question worth asking during the haunted season.

Jim Davies, a professor of cognitive science and director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory at Carleton University, has given that question some thought. Among other things, he explored why people are drawn to horror in his 2014 book Riveted: The Science of How Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One with the Universe.

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Davies, whose primary area of research involves studying imagination and how people picture things in their heads, says the book allowed him to do a deep dive into the phenomenon known as the paradox of horror “where people seem to scout adverse experiences.”

That might include roller-coasters, horror movies or other scary and exciting experiences.

Why are some people riveted to seemingly terrifying experiences?

“For one thing, fear gets our heart rate up and our pulse and our adrenalin, and for some people that is just exciting,” Davies said. “People want to be stimulated, they want to be excited, and fear is one way to do that.”

But there is a caveat, which might help explain the fascination with Halloween.

“It does make a difference that it is not real. It is sort of experiencing the thrill of terror in an environment that you know is safe.”

The attraction to horror is similar to what people experience on a roller-coaster, he said.

“You are in a situation where your acceleration and your movement would normally be a very dangerous situation, but because you trust the roller-coaster it is sort of manageable.”

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What is going on, he says, is that the “deliberative thinking” part of the mind knows that it is safe. “But you have got very primitive parts of your mind that are receiving input directly from your senses that are not intermediated by your conscious thought — and that can’t really tell the difference between safe and not safe.”

When people watch a zombie attacking someone on a screen, for example, their visual system and much of their brain interprets it as something that is happening right in front of them. It is only their knowledge that it is just a movie that lets them know it is safe.

“We can trick our brains.”

Those events give people the thrill of fear while they continue to understand it is safe. Once they believe something is unsafe, there is no thrill involved, only fear.

Davies also said humans are naturally attracted to negativity and danger, in part, because they want to learn from it.

“We can hear about somebody going through something dangerous and learn about it without having to go through it ourselves.”

Humans have developed an instinct for paying attention to stories and learning from them, and also watching dangerous situations.

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“I think that watching horror movies is a little bit like when you walk down the street and you see two people in a fight. You are compelled to watch the fight. Or even more curiously, when you are driving and there is an accident you will sometimes slow down and look at the accident.”

Davies said people feel that it is important to pay attention to dangerous situations.

“I think what is happening is we are trying to learn from that, so horror movies feel important to watch because our minds are fundamentally learning mechanisms and trying to glean as much information as we can from dangerous situations so that we can avoid them ourselves.”

He said the attraction to dangerous situations is something that is below the level of consciousness — “We are evolved to pay attention to that kind of stuff.”

While not everyone is drawn to the idea of terror at Halloween, spookiness, he said, “is the kid version of horror, and kids are a little bit drawn to that too. Kids are also drawn to dangerous situations.”

It is understandable, he said, why there is a market for scary stuff in general, around Halloween, and throughout the year.

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“Halloween is just a part of a larger universe of frightening situations that people deliberately put themselves in. Reading books, watching movies, haunted houses, rides at amusement parks. There is a market for it.”

Davies admits he is fascinated with scary things and has a “moderate” interest in horror movies. “I enjoy them but am not obsessed.”

But Halloween? “I am a 53-year-old man and we don’t have kids. If we get invited to a party, we will sometimes go.”

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