Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with another classic episode from
Speaker 1: our archives. I wanted to air this one because we
Speaker 1: are dead in the midst of spooky season, though I
Speaker 1: personally believe every season should be at least a little spooky,
Speaker 1: and so that got me thinking again about why lots
Speaker 1: of us love being scared. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel
Speaker 1: Bam Here on the menu of what's scary these days,
Speaker 1: there are many threats to choose, from mass shootings and
Speaker 1: uncertain political and economic future, nuclear war, spiders, so it
Speaker 1: begs the question why would anyone want more? Why do people,
Speaker 1: in fact pay money to be scared when there's already
Speaker 1: enough frightening stuff served up daily. But that's exactly what
Speaker 1: tons of people do. We Horror fans seek out horror movies,
Speaker 1: scary books, and haunted houses. We pay to consume year,
Speaker 1: and selling fear is an increasingly profitable pursuit. For instance,
Speaker 1: the number of horror movies released in nineteen six only
Speaker 1: seven sixty two. The top twenty five horror films of
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, including Stephen King's It Sold, combined a hundred
Speaker 1: and forty million tickets and grossed more than nine hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty million dollars. But this is nothing new. Since
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, horror movies have taken more than twenty four
Speaker 1: billion dollars of our hard earned money at the box office,
Speaker 1: adjusting for inflation. It's a big business antony haunted house industry,
Speaker 1: and yes we can call it an industry now is
Speaker 1: also capitalizing. It grossed more than three hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: in amusement parks another place to find heart racing attractions
Speaker 1: that scare so many annually serve three hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five million people in North America alone. Of course, this
Speaker 1: brand of fear served up by horror flicks, thrill rides,
Speaker 1: and even haunted houses is a specific and in fact
Speaker 1: different form of fear than what someone feels or deals
Speaker 1: with if they're mugged or chased by wild boars. And
Speaker 1: that is where we can find the answer to today's question,
Speaker 1: why do we do this to ourselves? First, it's important
Speaker 1: to know that there is a competing overload of various
Speaker 1: definitions and associated nuances of fear. Lots of people study it,
Speaker 1: lots of people have opinions We'll break it down into
Speaker 1: two simple types, capital A anxiety and capital f fear.
Speaker 1: Anxiety is what keeps us up at night. It's often
Speaker 1: experienced as dread, worry, uncertainty, nervousness, apprehension, and specifically, it
Speaker 1: focuses the mind on possible future events that might happen
Speaker 1: but have not happened yet, anything from nuclear war or
Speaker 1: the end of democracy, to the injury or death of
Speaker 1: loved ones, a terrible break up, the loss of finances, ETCETERA.
Speaker 1: Fear that is fright, horror, terror, or panic is the
Speaker 1: much more straightforward frenemy. It derives from what is right
Speaker 1: in front of us, right now, an immediate threat to
Speaker 1: our safety. This could be standing in front of a
Speaker 1: crowd for a speech, an unfriendly dog running straight for us,
Speaker 1: or that moment when we accidentally walk through a spider web.
Speaker 1: Not anxiety about that possibly happening, but that actually happening.
Speaker 1: It causes significant near instantaneous fight or flight biological changes
Speaker 1: in us. But further, in attempting to understand why someone
Speaker 1: would want to experience something like fear, we also need
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that it contains a subcategory which brings about
Speaker 1: similar symptoms but with mostly enjoyable outcomes. Margie Key is
Speaker 1: a sociologist who studies fear and the author of the
Speaker 1: books Scream. She and her colleague Greg Seagal, PhD, the
Speaker 1: director for the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: have come up with an academic description for this subcategory,
Speaker 1: voluntary engagement with negative high arousal stimuli, or in other words,
Speaker 1: going to a scary movie or haunted house and while
Speaker 1: allowing ourselves to feel the biological thrills of being scared.
Speaker 1: As part of this, the overall experience can lead to
Speaker 1: deeper meaning in our lives. In some cases, it can
Speaker 1: even provide some therapeutic value for those experiencing anxiety. Care
Speaker 1: says that experiencing fun scary can give us a sense
Speaker 1: of mastery over it that can feel very gratifying. Here's
Speaker 1: a chance to feel like we've got it all within
Speaker 1: our control. Here's how it works. Step one, we choose
Speaker 1: to experience a scary activity. This step perhaps the most important,
Speaker 1: frames our entire experience. By exhibiting agency to face something scary,
Speaker 1: we're acknowledging that we are in control of it. We
Speaker 1: also realize the safety inherent in this that if we
Speaker 1: walk into a haunted house, we're not going to be murdered,
Speaker 1: not really right. Step two, something unexpected startles or unsettles us,
Speaker 1: like in The Blair Witch Project when someone is standing
Speaker 1: in a very dark corner, or The Shining when ghostly
Speaker 1: twins demand that we come play with them forever end ever,
Speaker 1: or in any number of slasher flicks when the protagonist
Speaker 1: realizes that the killer's calls are coming from inside the house.
Speaker 1: The original reference to that maybe when a stranger calls
Speaker 1: by the way, good trivia. At any rate, we're on edge,
Speaker 1: which brings us two. Step three, we experience fight or flight.
Speaker 1: Danger stimuli is received by our brain and our sympathetic
Speaker 1: nervous system kicks into gear. This is what kept the
Speaker 1: Cave people away from sabertoothed lions. Our bodies are flooded
Speaker 1: with adrenaline, dopamine, oxytacin, and endorphins. Our heart rate, blood
Speaker 1: pressure in breathing increase, We sweat, we get goose bumps.
Speaker 1: In some cases, we may scream, involuntarily, jump or run
Speaker 1: for the hills. Don't worry, it's all completely natural. Care says.
Speaker 1: This is the pedal to the metal and all systems go,
Speaker 1: but in a safe environment, one in which we choose
Speaker 1: to experience. It's important to note that this is much
Speaker 1: different than facing real danger, and that's what makes it fun.
Speaker 1: Care said, even deciding to do scary, this is the
Speaker 1: protective frame we've created for ourselves. In our mind. We
Speaker 1: are being open to engage with this material and suspend
Speaker 1: our disbelief. It creates a different experience than if we were, say,
Speaker 1: mugged at random. Our framing of the situation is then
Speaker 1: going to be with that. In the context, screams mean
Speaker 1: fun and not fear, which leads us to step four.
Speaker 1: We experience satisfaction on a biological level. Our parasympathetic nervous
Speaker 1: system kicks in and it brings everything back down to
Speaker 1: normal heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, sweating, and that urge
Speaker 1: to run far, far away. Care said, this can feel
Speaker 1: very relaxing. It's the rest and digest period. We're safe.
Speaker 1: We can sit with that and reap the benefits. So
Speaker 1: step five. Those benefits we share in the experience and
Speaker 1: build relationships. Care said of hunted house, horror movie and
Speaker 1: roller coaster excursions. These experiences are often linked with friends
Speaker 1: and family. We attend with them, were building strong bonds
Speaker 1: and a shared camaraderie that in itself can be really gratifying.
Speaker 1: It's the stuff that nostalgia is built from. So why
Speaker 1: do we choose to experience certain scary things? The rush, sure,
Speaker 1: but also to make our lives feel more meaningful, to
Speaker 1: make memories. Care also notes that a common therapy for
Speaker 1: those who experience anxiety, that other brand of fear that
Speaker 1: consumes many of us these days, is to do something
Speaker 1: scary enough but ultimately safe, to activate your sympathetic nervous system.
Speaker 1: She said, It's a physical sensation that feels good. It
Speaker 1: gives you a mental pause. You become grounded in your body,
Speaker 1: fully distracted by something in your environment, and ultimately you
Speaker 1: realize that you survived something. You set a challenge and
Speaker 1: you survived, which brings gratification. These days will take all
Speaker 1: the help we can get, So what's your favorite scary movie?
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article why is so
Speaker 1: Good to Be Scared? On houst works dot com written
Speaker 1: by Jamie Allen. Brainstuff is production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com, and it's produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the
Speaker 1: i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.