If you’re here, you likely already know at least one thing about me: I love spooky stuff. I love scary movies and horror, creepy books, disturbing images, and generally just weird things. And the thing is, this is far from uncommon. (It’s so common, in fact, that there was recently a bit of a controversy popping off on Twitter between people who love spooky stuff and people arguing that “loving Halloween is not a personality trait”. Like, duh, no one claimed it was, can we let a girl live???) Horror movies and TV shows aren’t popular by accident. People love them, so they keep coming back and wanting to see more. Haunted houses, escape rooms, ghost hunting, telling stories about paranormal experiences—all of these things are on the rise in popularity. Which leads to one very important question: why do we like to be scared? Why are we seeking out these movies, shows, and experiences just to purposely put ourselves in the position of being frightened?
Well, as you may also know, I’m no scientist—but I’ll do my best, because this topic actually really interests me (and I figured it may interest some of you, too).
The main reason why we as humans enjoy getting scared in a controlled environment is also one of the main reasons for a large majority of things humans do: chemicals. The same pesky buggers that regulate our stress responses, our sleep, our body changes, our sex drive—nearly everything. Our brains are full of chemicals that send messages to our bodies about nearly everything. These are referred to as “neurotransmitters”, in science-y talk. If you’ve ever discussed mental health or sleep, you’re probably familiar with these chemicals. Seratonin, for example, makes up the second S in “SSRI”—selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors—which are a common choice of medication for depression. So as you can already tell, the chemicals in our brains can be manipulated to some extent and we can try to make them work in our favor.
Which, in a small way, is what we are doing when we scare ourselves on purpose.
When we get scared, our brains immediately respond with a chemical you’re all probably familiar with: adrenaline. (You’re probably especially familiar with this one if, like me, you have anxiety and your brain is sending this sucker out totally unregulated and at times when it’s wildly inappropriate, but I digress.) When your brain sends out adrenaline, your heart races, your breath quickens, your palms may sweat, you feel it on your stomach. Your responsive human self immediately goes into the classic “fight or flight” mode. When there’s something that’s actually dangerous happening, we have to act on this. We have to fight or we have to flee.
But when we’re scaring ourselves on purpose, it’s a little different. When we’re doing it for fun, our neurotransmitters are still going to react the exact same way. They’re going to send out that adrenaline, because our “lizard brain”, as people like to call it, doesn’t know the difference between actual danger and pretend “fun” danger. It just reacts. So your brain sends out the cue to go into fight or flight mode—except you don’t actually have to do either of those things. If you’re watching a scary movie from the comfort of your own couch, snuggled under the blankets and clutching your plush unicorn, or you’re walking through a haunted house where you know you actually are safe and nothing bad is really going to happen to you (even if you do get startled), you can benefit from just the good parts of the adrenaline. When you get that rush of adrenaline, you get a rush of dopamine (another good “happy” chemical, like serotonin) and endorphins (yes, the things that make you happy. And happy people just don’t shoot their husbands. They just don’t!)
Now, of course, this isn’t going to work on everyone, and that’s because everyone’s brains—and nerves—are different. Some people, whether they know they’re safe or not, just don’t respond well to that rush of adrenaline and don’t like that feeling. That’s why we’ve all got that one friend who absolutely will not watch that scary movie with us and would probably have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a haunted house.
Aside from the chemicals, there are a couple other reasons why people like to be scared on purpose. Some of masochistic individuals just like to see how much we can take. How scared is too scared? How much can we endure before it’s too real and we have to draw the line? Are we as brave as we think we are?
Some of us are just curious, which applies a lot more when it comes to exploring creepy concepts or researching disturbing themes. We just want to know. We want to go down that rabbit hole as far as we can, even if it is dark and weird and possibly gross, we can’t help it. We’re humans—we’re weak. We can’t resist the pull of the curiosity!
And finally, it also has to do with bonding. Again this comes back to that pesky fact that we are only human, and humans—whether we introverts like it or not—benefit directly from bonding with other humans. Unfortunately, we are pack creatures at our biological core. And getting scared together is a great way to bond. Going to a haunted house with a group of friends or watching a scary movie with your boyfriend not only fun activities, but they bring us closer together. The shared experience and getting that rush of adrenaline and then laughing about who jumped at what creates that closeness that humans need.
So there we have it. The brief, probably most unscientific sounding, Samantha-fied version of why we puny humans just love to scare ourselves intentionally.
What do you guys think? Do you like to get scared? What’s your favorite scary activity? Let me know in the comments! As always, I’d love to hear from you. <3
Sources: