WEBVTT - The Horror 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.040 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.760 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.360 what is your relationship with horror stories, with horror movies, 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:24.920 with horror fiction. Um, well, you're a fan. Well, well, yeah, 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.200 I would say that I'm not as much anymore. And 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.480 I became really sensitive to horror in any sort of 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.080 form um when my after my daughter was born. Actually 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.800 well I was pregnant, so I have been slowly ramping 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:42.519 back up, back back up into zombie land. Uh. But 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.279 I used to love the Ripper stuff. I'm not a ripperologist, 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.720 but that that was something that occupied my mind for 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:55.760 for many, many years and a ripper enthusiast enthusiast. Sure, sure, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.000 I like that. Um but yeah, yeah, that's that's uh 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:03.480 stuff that I think is absolutely frightening and takes hold 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:05.800 of your mind and you can't help being transport. And 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:08.199 I'm pretty sure that you have a good and lengthy 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.360 relationship with horror. Yeah yeah, I um, I mean from 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.200 very early on, possibly because my my my mom's explanation 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.960 for this is that she is that they always made 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.240 too much out of Halloween, or that they really celebrated 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.320 Halloween in our households. So it kind of instilled an 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:30.600 early fascination with with them a cob and and and 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:32.800 perhaps that that's the case, but I mean from a 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:37.679 very early age, I was fascinated with with these fantastic 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.160 stories and settings and and any kind of creepy tales. UM. 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.600 I remember like when I was in uh younger grades, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.520 we would would go to the video store to rent 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.680 movies as a family, or I'd go there with my dad, 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.960 and we were not horror movie renting people, but I 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.800 would sneak over or even not really sneak, but I would. 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.640 I would go over to the horror and I would 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.040 walk down I would look at all the vhs uh 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.640 covers And it was a pretty uh, pretty crazy experience 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.480 doing that because on one hand, especially in you know, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.120 back in the back in the nineties, these uh, these 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:18.000 VHS covers, they even the crappiest film might have a 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.400 really awesome bit of poster art on the cover, awesome title, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.560 really awesome stelf and uh. And as we've discussed before, 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.280 I think that like the first episode we did with 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.799 each other, or the second about people turning inside out. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.600 There was one film that had a picture of a 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:34.560 guy turning inside out on the cover, and the actual 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:36.360 film has nothing to do with that. And it didn't 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.280 you say, he had like jeans onto you, And that 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:40.960 was what was so just concerting, as he was turning 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.120 himself inside out or he was inside out, and yet 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:45.160 he had jeans on like me. Maybe he knew he 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.360 was going to turn inside out and he has a 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:49.799 real version of nudity, so he swallowed some gene shorts 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.480 before the poisonous miss could transform him. How that happened. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:55.640 But they always had, you know, even if it was 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.160 it was something just crazy, out of the ordinary, just 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.119 a lost beef home, it might have some really neat 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.320 cover going on. And then the mainstream hits, they all 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.880 had fascinating covers, be it like a Friday the thirteen 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.679 or a Nightmare on Elm Street. And and I would 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.040 always build up in my mind this, uh, this creative 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.040 version of what that film must consist of, and generally, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.440 you know, it's it's not an idea that would stand 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.800 the test of time when I actually watched the film 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.440 later on the road. So yeah, from a from a 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.160 very early point, I was very interested in these in 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.880 horror stories and some of the first books I started 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.840 reading a really hardcore where Stephen King books, and then 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.680 we got really into love craft, and and I still 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.080 I still read a certain amount of horror. Some of 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.560 it maybe is a little more literary, some of it 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.680 is significantly less literary, depending on I guess what my 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.120 mood is, and I write stories that are horror or 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.000 horror esque in nature. So right, we'll get to the 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.680 crux of what we're talking about in a moment. But 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.240 you want to talk about as soon as I'm through rampling, No, no, no, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.320 about what you've written and in some upcoming information about that. Oh, 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:06.720 I do have a book of short stories. It's going 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.280 to be out eventually, but I don't it's a book 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.840 of Southern short stories and it's called it's going to 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:17.800 be called The Grave Stoppers, I believe. Yeah. Okay, so 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:19.360 look forward to and we'll give you, guess some more 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.320 information on that. But I think that's really exciting to 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:23.800 talk about. I'm excited about it. It's just got a 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.120 little more editing tweaking to do. Um. But yeah, the 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.160 the topic here, we're talking about horror. We're talking about 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:34.960 our fascination with horror and kids fascination kids, because that's 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:36.800 the thing, Like, like I mentioned earlier, from a very 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.640 early age, I was interested in what these stories consisted of, 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.719 even if they were forbidden to me, and you know, 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.040 probably in certain to a certain extent because they were 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.880 forbidden to me. But but all kids seem to have 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.920 this this obsession on some level with with what is 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.560 waiting in the closet right what is behind the shower 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.120 curtain or looking at in the bottom of the toilet, 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.440 you know. And and and that is so true because um, 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.839 I remember just hating these stories when I was a 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.920 little but loving them the same time, like tell me again, 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:10.800 and tell me again, and then just you know, sitting 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.760 in my bed thinking about how a severed hand was 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:15.920 going to come and strangle me to death. They're talking 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.320 about the toilet story. Oh they did think made me 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.160 think about the toilet first for a moment, because I 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.200 kind of think at some point I thought a severed 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:23.720 hand might come out of the toilet too. When I 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.400 was a little I'll see, I was poisoned by the 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:29.320 VHS covers because they had these awful doolies films and 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.200 that it pictured that the cover arts are are amazing 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.080 because they picture these really bad looking puppets. Not these 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.200 were not hints and creations, but like horrible little goblin 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.480 puppets coming out of the toilet. And the idea, I 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.120 think the tagline was like they get you in the 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:46.039 end or something, because you're exposed, you're vulnerable on the 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.840 toilet and as a kid, there there are other anxieties 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.760 tied up with with using the toilet anyway. And then 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.320 throw in the fact that there might be a goblin 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:56.880 down there that might eat you in the bomb that 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.640 in the that's that's problem out right there. Well, let's 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.240 talk a little bit about clowns for a moment um, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.360 because you know what you're talking about, toilets and scary stuff. 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.760 You've gotta go to clowns. Um, I'm not the only 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.080 person who's frightened of clowns. Apparently this is something that 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.200 a lot of people have a phobia of. And there 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.880 is one study that I thought was very interesting. Um. 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.119 The University of Sheffield study asked more than two fifty 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.240 children ages four to sixteen, what they thought of the 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.479 idea of using clown imagery to decorate a hospital children's ward. 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.400 Because this is really they were trying to figure out 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.200 what they wanted to make this ward look like to 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.160 make the kids feel more at home. According to Dr 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.360 Penny Curtis, who helped conduct the study, quote, we found 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.800 that clowns were universally disliked by children. Some found them 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.400 quite frightening and unknowable. And unknowable I thought that was 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.360 a really interesting word choice because I thought that I 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.279 think is part of the problem with clowns. Um. And 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.119 think anybody who's listening that has same feeling about clowns 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.400 that I do. There's this idea that you know, there's 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.599 some someone hiding behind a mask, not showing their true 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.760 self well, and their skin is ghostly pale, and then 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:16.080 grease paint. It's just and they're doing you know, creepy tricks. Um. 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:21.200 But sometimes they're saving rodeo people from certain goring at 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.680 the hands of a bull. You gotta respect the rodeo clowns. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:26.720 I don't know. I don't know about I think the 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.520 rodeo clown has perhaps be most frightening because then you 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:32.720 just put a cowboy head on top. It's just it 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:34.800 doesn't work well. One way. I see this tying and 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.200 what we're talking about today. The rodeo clown especially is 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.760 kind of distracting you from the idea of death. And 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:42.840 maybe we sort of see that, see through that to 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.280 a certain extent, you know, and we kind of we 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.560 can't we see the con going on and we don't 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.240 want to buy into it. That's not a clown having fun. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.240 That is one dude trying to save another guy from 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.720 getting run through with bullhorns. I don't know about that. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:57.480 I think that is the clown trying to add more 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:02.280 distraction so that the the radio person will be gored 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.560 to death. Because I mean, I do not see anything 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:11.040 there that's that's um, that is genuine, that's that's beneficial. Well, 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.640 we'll tell me. There's one more thing about clowns here. Um. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.760 And I encountered the clown phobia a lot because it 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.360 seems like everybody has it. Um. But I started with 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.640 jesters for me, by the way, jester for the record, no, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:26.560 just court jesters. Those guys, well there with court jesters, 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:28.640 I feel like they're a little more honest because the 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.920 court jester is obviously adult and his and his and 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.080 is also in such close proximity to a mad ruler. 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.040 They're really hanging on by a thread. They have to 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:41.160 walk that line every day. Um? And can I make 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.120 the king laugh without actually uh winding up in the dungeon? 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.559 You know? So I feel for those guys along, But 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:49.720 but tell me this, how about the sad clowns? How 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.680 about the sad hobo clowns? Like like, mkelly, are you kidding? 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.959 Like that's that's that's the worst? How is that the worst? 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:01.040 Was just even you see him and he's just the 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.360 hobo clown, you know, with stubble on the chimp, a 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:08.360 cigarette hanging out, you know, two coins in his pocket, 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.400 has a hole in it. That's uplifting for a child 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.319 right there there hoping it has that hobo mystique about him. 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:20.840 You know, it's the traveler, he's got emperiences. Um okay. 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.400 So I think the question is why do we keep 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.640 going to material that that unearth these uneasy feelings? So 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.520 why did I read Stephen King's it? And I couldn't 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.360 put it down? Um? You know, and and it features 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:35.800 a prominent clown, right. I think there's people when they 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.320 think about clowns, they usually think kings. Ye, why do 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.679 we keep doing this? And scientists believe that The answer 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:46.400 is that humans have evolved to actually enjoy fear, and 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.679 that we there's a type of personality that really enjoys it. 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.920 We've talked about this person before. It's the neophiliac. It's 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.160 like the type T right, Type T. Yeah, this is 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.200 the person who craves new experiences, really wants a jolt, 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:01.800 and that's because they have a lot more dopamine flowing 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.360 and we already know that they are genetic markers for this, right. Um, 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.439 So this is something that is hardwired in some people. 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.040 But that being said, even if you're not a type 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:15.559 TIE person or a neophiliac, usually most people enjoy good 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.360 scare to some degree. So should I walk us through 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:23.520 the the the the shadow of the value of death. 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.240 Al Right, So let's say you're watching something scary or 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.559 or reading something scary. Um, I don't know. Let's say 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:33.160 it's our textis Chainsaw Masker. That's that was one that 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.120 always got on. Um. So you're watching this right, Yeah, 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.800 the horror on the screen and uh and in the 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.720 soundtrack because it has a fabulous sound design. Uh, runs 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.679 into your ears, into your eyes, and it all winds 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.360 up in this little almond shaped clump of neurons called 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.520 the amygdala. All right, right, we've talked about the Magdola 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.920 processes all sorts of emotions front and center. Yeah, it's 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.000 vital to emotional processing, especially thanks like glove, pleasure, and 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:06.880 of course fear um. So Amigola activate unless she's all this, 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.520 All these brain and body cocktails into your body, All 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:15.199 these hormones, all right, yeah, Yeah, prompts the adrenal glands 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.840 to turn out cortisol, which is a stress hormone, and 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.120 high levels of this can actually impede insulin and causes 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.480 the rise in blood sugar. Gives you a little extra 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.679 fuel because you the brain is telling you something scary 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.840 is happening and you might have to either run from 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:34.400 it or attack it with a stick. So yeah, you 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.600 can need extra oxygen for that. So you're breathing faster. 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:38.200 The body is saying, all right, let's do it. We're 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.400 gonna fight or flight. I'm going to make sure that 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.840 you have enough oxygen for it. Heart is racing so 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.880 that oxygen can get to your muscles. Your appetite stalls, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.800 because if you're about to have to fight leather face, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.560 you don't you don't want to have to stop for 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.679 a snack break or granola bar bar halfway through it um, 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:56.600 which I think would be a nice take because you know, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.120 in the slasher films, what always happens to the the 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.520 survey of her lady, right, she ends up knocking down 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.920 Jason Vorhees or somehow incapacitating our killer, kicking him in 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.079 the the nethers or something hitting him on the head, 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.800 and then they're down. And instead of doing the logical thing, 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:14.959 which is either which is fight or flight, which is 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.640 either run all the way away into the next county 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.720 or never stop hitting the down maniac in the face 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.600 with a brick fight it finish it right, Instead, they 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.960 set there next to the the killer and maybe weep 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.160 a little bit until they actually wait back up again 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:32.000 and it all starts a new But it would be 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:33.840 a nice twist if if they stopped and they actually 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.560 use that time to have a granilla bar and yeah, 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.320 little sacket of snack mix. That would be you know, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.680 if anybody's listening in there, they're writing the next screenplay 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.960 for screen ten or whatever we're on though. All right, 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.480 so but that's not all Your appetite is stalled, and 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.000 you're also you're sweating because we don't want you to 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.079 overheat in this fight or flight scenario, all right, your 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.960 pupils are dilated so that you can see the enemy better, 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.480 because again the body is getting you ready to either 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.400 fight it or flight it. And uh. And finally, the 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.800 cortisol saturated your bloodstream and feeds back in the nicola 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.559 to boost the perception of danger. So it also reinforces 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.720 your memory of that initial fright so that you'll still 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.160 feel a little jumpy. Because the idea here is like 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.480 I got attacked by Jason Vorhees today, I might be 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.959 attacked by another Jason Vorhees tomorrow. So it stays in 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.800 your system for a few days. That's why something frightful happens, 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.319 you're you maybe a little jumpy for a little bit afterwards, 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.240 for you know, days. And this all happens within about 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.800 three seconds. And while all this is happening, information also 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.559 travels to your prefrontal cortex, and this is part of 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:41.360 the brain responsible for consciously evaluating danger and it tells you, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.200 thankfully that this is just a movie. And so what 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:50.280 happens is you are completely overstimulated, right, and the resulting 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.520 spillover is processed as reward instead of fear because all 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.239 of a sudden you think, oh, yes, okay, it's okay, 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.360 there's there's no imminent threat. I have actually served vibed 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.719 what I just imagined for myself. Yeah, because the other thing, 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.760 if you're about to potentially fight Jason Vorhees or run 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:10.400 from him, um, the body is also helping out by 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.800 making sure that the that their endorphins released into your 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.760 bloodstream because you're going to sustain injuries if you're fighting 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.200 him or running through the woods to escape him. So 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.920 so you end up having dopamine, uh flowing through the 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.640 system is feel good drug that if you're not actually 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.040 having to fight or run away, is just going to 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:31.760 be there to make you feel good, you know. And 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.000 you mentioned to you that cortisol lingers in your blood 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.280 for a couple of days, and um, that actually feeds 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:41.240 into this other idea that it's useful for your magdala 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:47.120 to be processing both fear and pleasure because uh, you know, 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.400 necessarily want to um separate those two forms of stimulation 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.160 because situations change on the time. What could be pleasant 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.480 now could in five minutes, ten minutes a day later 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:03.160 be actually very fearful or unpleasant. So the brain has 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.960 to respond accordingly. And it's actually pretty brilliant way to 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:10.800 adapt very quickly situations to have the magdala uh. You know, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.360 having this double duty now another huge aspect of fear 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.960 and uh and and this certainly flows over into into 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.160 our enjoyment of horror films and horror fiction and and 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:27.680 you know, quick improved scares around the house. Uh And 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.200 and that is the social context of it, because, like 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.400 a lot of things, we learn how it works from 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.600 seeing how others use it. We see how what other 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:40.800 people's fear responses, and from that we uh we begin 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.240 to piece together our own appropriate fear responses. It's true. 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:48.040 And uh. You know, we have mentioned kids and the 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:49.960 fact that they actually like to be scared. And I 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:51.800 even see this in my three year old at round 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.400 age two, she started saying chase me or you know, 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.720 pretending that I was you know, uh t rex or something. 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.720 Um and you do you see the same kids and 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.560 they really are trying to work out situations and this 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.840 is the idea behind why they do like to get scared. 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:12.040 Psychologist Paul Bloom's lab has actually shown four and five 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.680 year old films of other children reacting to movies now 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:18.560 he had to do that because for ethical reasons, he 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.200 couldn't get kids into his lab and then scare them, right, 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.720 um so, but he could show them images of children 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:30.000 who were scared, who were watching scary movies. When asked 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.200 which of the movies they would want to see, because 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.400 he shared them all different types of movies, boring movies, 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.840 happy movies, sad movies, scary movies. The four and five 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.080 year olds preferred the happy films, of course, but they 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.920 picked scary movies over the boring ones. And he says, 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.640 parents automatically assumed that children like stories with happy endings, 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.600 and he cited the Little Engine that Could, But he says, 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.600 what about the little Engine that that tried and failed? 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.160 It might be that children would find it perversely satisfying. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.680 It's it's also worth noting here, um, not to jump 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:07.680 too far ahead, but most, maybe most, um, mainstream horror 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:12.560 films do have a happy ending. Um yeah, like you know, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:14.680 you have a lot of bad stuff happened. But then 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:18.720 but if they follow the more stereotypical story arc of 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.879 these things, uh, you still have everything come back around 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.359 to some level of normalcy and some some manner of 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.760 a happy ending. Now, that that does not hold true 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.040 across the board. But if you think of some of 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.080 the stuff that's really mainstream, the stuff that is actually 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.280 up there in the box office, um, like Jaws, for instance, 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.119 what happens in the end of Jaws spoiler shark blows 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:43.639 up right right the the bad guy, the Boogeyman, is vanquished. Really, 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.400 and so we see that over and over again in stories. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.840 We see fairy tales, right, and this is the stuff 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.480 that we feed our children's mind with from the get go. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.720 I remember that not too long ago there were five 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:59.040 hundred year old um German fairy tales that were just unearthed, 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.400 and one of them was particularly gruesome. It was about 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:07.520 a witch who swallowed um, this girl. Actually the girls 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:09.600 trying to get away from the witch, she turned into water. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.240 The witch swallowed her up and so then the girl 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.480 had to cut herself out of the witch's belly. And 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.720 you know this again, the reason why we're putting this 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:22.240 sort of information out there, um consciously or unconsciously, is 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.560 because you're trying to teach kids about dangers in the world. 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.560 And that's what storytelling and and really horror stories are 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.240 trying to tell you. Like, there is some sort of 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.240 moral code ascribed to what we're doing in the world. Um. 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.919 And there are consequences, and of course you have. Some 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.439 of the nursery boogies were just all about trying to 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.280 correct certain behaviors, like like the long Legged scissor Man, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:45.919 the whole rhyme about We're basically it's you don't need 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.800 to suck your thumb because if you keep sucking your thumb, 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:50.800 the long legged scissor Man will show up and he 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.160 will slice your thumbs off. I never heard that, Oh, 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:54.919 you're really there's a there's a fun rhyme. If I 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:56.840 if I thought about it ahead of time, I would 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:58.880 have brought it. I would have brought it in prepared 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:03.639 so we could we could read it. But wow, okay, um, 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:05.240 I didn't get a lot of that kind of stuff 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:06.840 right to me as a child. It was mostly like 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.399 if you grow up in a Victorian it was mostly 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:15.440 like environmental literature like pop Cam Park and stuff like that. Um. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.000 So yeah, I mean there's this idea that children are 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.600 learning what dangers are and people who they can trust 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:26.040 and not trust. Um. And there's something actually called Williams 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:31.000 syndrome and children and adults and this actually this syndrome 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.080 doesn't allow them to be fearful of anybody in any 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:38.320 sort of social situation. Um, they are hyper social people 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.600 with William syndrome. They love people and they are literally 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.639 pathologically trusting of people right now. And then not to 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.359 imply that all hyper social activity and UH in small 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.320 kids is definitely tied up in this condition. You also 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.840 have situations where kids will be hyper social because they've 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:59.680 grown up in an early environment where it is advantageous 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.560 to be UH ultrasocial with various people moving through their lives, 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.200 particularly and say UH an institutionalized setting like an ape 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.840 as yeah, right, as as as a way to adapt. Um. 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.000 But with with people with true Williams syndrome readers, researchers 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.240 actually think that their limbic system, the part of the 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:21.480 brain that regulates emotion, is wired differently, and there appears 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.760 to be a disregulation in one of the chemicals oxytocin 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.040 we've taught. We've called that the love hormone. Before that 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.359 signals went to trust and went to distrust. And parents 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.720 of kids with William syndrome have to be really vigilant 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.560 about teaching their children to distrust people, because they truly 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.560 will they really sensed no fear whatsoever. And we'll run 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:44.480 up to anybody and uh and pretty much say, hey, 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.719 what's going on? Come home with me? All right, we're 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.520 gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:53.560 we're going to discuss Catharsis and our old friend benign violation. 0:20:53.800 --> 0:21:02.000 Oh that old friend, right, we're back, so benign violation. 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.000 You may remember this from when we talked about humor. 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:09.160 What makes something funny? According to some theories of humor, um, 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.639 it's the fact that we're threatened but not really. Something 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:14.959 that seems like it's gonna kill us is actually just 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:17.720 a joke, and therefore we laugh. It's our our our 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:22.720 way of communicating to our fellow cave people that that 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.560 there's no real threat, that the what we thought was 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.639 a savor tooth tiger jumping out of the the underbrush 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.160 to consume us was actually just thog having a laugh 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:33.960 at our expense. And then we all kind of laugh 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.639 because we were so frightened and really sacrificed thog to 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.720