Scientists studied a ‘haunted house’ to understand why we love horror

Horror films and fairground haunted houses may be enjoyable because they let us overcome simulated threats in a safe space, so we can learn how to cope with negative experiences in real life.

To better understand how we experience horror, Mathias Clasen at Aarhus University in Denmark and his colleagues have been studying how people cope with gory surprises. They recruited 280 visitors at a commercial haunted house in Vejle, Denmark, which was set in a dilapidated factory where 30 rooms had been designed to target different fears. For instance, there were dark, claustrophobic spaces and rooms containing actors in zombie make-up.

Before they entered the building in groups, each visitor was asked to choose to focus either on minimising or increasing their fear throughout the experience. The team then asked the visitors about the mental tactics they used.

Those who tried to maximise their fear said they concentrated on the things meant to frighten them, instead of looking away or thinking about something else. They also told themselves that the situation was really dangerous, and allowed themselves to scream, which Clasen says can make you feel more frightened. Those who tried to lessen their fears did the opposite.

But both groups had one response in common: they got closer to others in their group, sometimes holding hands. Clasen says the adrenaline junkies may have done this to experience more fear vicariously through others, while those intent on feeling less fear may have been looking for comfort. “It was striking that the same gesture of seeking physical proximity can work in those diametrically opposed ways,” he says.

“People who enjoy horror may seek it out because it helps them feel a sense of mastery over their fears”

It is something of a double-sided coin, says Garriy Shteynberg at the University of Tennessee. “The more you can assure yourself that you’re actually safe through the presence of others, the more you can focus on the stimulus, let yourself focus on the demon and get afraid,” he says.

At the end of the experiment, the thrill-seekers reported feeling more fear, and also enjoyed the experience more. “When people report that they were more scared, they may not mean they were scared for their life, but enjoying a high state of [emotional] arousal, rather than pure fear,” says Shteynberg.

In another recent study, Clasen and his team analysed the personality traits of more than 1000 people in North America who enjoy horror entertainment.

They found that people who like horror films are more likely to score highly for openness to experience, a personality trait linked to intellect and imagination. Those who scored highly for agreeableness were more likely to be easily scared by horror media.

“I was glad to find that people who seek out horror are people who like to be intellectually stimulated,” says Clasen. “I very often run into genre prejudice – people who think horror equals stupid slasher films from the 80s – but the horror genre is so much more.”

Clasen and his team believe that people who seek out and enjoy horror may do so because it helps them feel a sense of mastery or control over their fears. Before we had movies or books to scare ourselves witless, this emotional practice could have happened through oral storytelling. And of course, Clasen says, the human brain makes its own horror stories in the form of nightmares that can simulate threats (see ‘Bad dreams train your brain’, below).

But the emotional usefulness of scary surprises may lessen as we get older. The team found that older people are less likely to enjoy horror than younger people, even though they find it just as scary. Clasen suggests this may be because the older we get, the less likely we are to benefit from simulated terror.