It may seem surprising, but some people enjoy entering the darkness of a movie theater to scare themselves with all kinds of scares on the screen. For researchers from the University of Pecs, Hungary, this tendency may well be explained by the arousal of fear itself.
The study, titled ‘The role of thrill and pleasure through subjective evaluation of horror film scenes’, published in the journal Scientific Reports, examines how curiosity about morbid subjects plays a key role in driving people to watch horror films, as does realism of the film. the scenes and the intensity of the fear felt.
The study, led by Botond Kiss, a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Pecs, recruited 558 participants. They were asked to complete online questionnaires about their movie-watching habits, emotional regulation, curiosity about morbid subjects, beliefs in the supernatural, sensitivity to disgust and sensation-seeking personality traits.
Participants then watched 10 short scenes from different subgenres of horror films, ranging from supernatural to psychological to monster films. After each scene, they rated their experiences in terms of excitement, pleasure, fear, disgust and realism.
Let’s be real
The results of the study are revealing. Feelings of fear, the realism of scenes, and curiosity about morbid subjects are all strong predictors of excitement and enjoyment. In other words, for some viewers, the more realistic these films are, the more exciting and entertaining they are.
Fear, in particular, is mainly associated with excitement and pleasure.
On the other hand, scenes that evoke a strong sense of disgust tend to reduce the viewer’s enjoyment, without necessarily reducing arousal. “Previous approaches did not distinguish between pleasure and excitement,” Botond Kiss told PsyPost.
“In contrast, our current research suggests that although they are quite similar constructs, they are influenced by different factors. The former is more influenced by perceived disgust, while the latter is more influenced by perceived fear.”
The study even debunks a long-standing cliché by suggesting that horror movie fans aren’t necessarily thrill seekers. And whatever their personal beliefs in the supernatural or their sensitivity to disgust, these parameters did not seem to influence the viewers’ reactions either: “Because some horror consumers can be described as thrill seekers, they experience the fear-induced adrenaline as rewarding. This appears to have an indirect effect through other factors,” Botond Kiss told PsyPost.
It is important to emphasize the limitations of this study. Most participants were fans of horror films and therefore already had a certain taste for this genre.
“In this study we looked at direct effects. So if one factor had an effect through another factor, we couldn’t detect it. This would require more complex analyses,” Kiss explains. “Moreover, the content of the different genres of horror films is quite different. Just think of how different the content of a psychological horror film and a zombie horror film are. So it may be worth taking this into account in the future.”
He adds: “Our immediate long-term plan is to identify certain motivations as to why people consume such content. Indirectly, we have the opportunity to identify the factors that influence the perception of disgust and fear.
“This could be important in understanding specific phobias where both fear and disgust are of particular importance (e.g. animal phobias or blood injection phobia).” – AFP Relax News
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