Why do people like horror movies?

The popularity of horror movies has always escaped me. For some reason, I never quite “got” the distinction between fantasy and reality, and seeing movies (usually between the fingers covering my eyes) that others find hilariously cheesy (The Beast from 20 Thousand Fathoms, The Crawling Eye, and The Day of the Triffids) were among the most traumatic hours of my childhood (and yes, I had a nice, 50s, Ozzie and Harriet childhood). I even cried when the little shoe got “dipped” in Roger Rabbit. Needless to say, my movie-going is restricted to rather tame fare–my husband and daughters do a nice job of screening for me. Mom can see Harry Potter (I even went to the 12:01 am showing), but she had better pass on 300.

So why do people pay money to be scared to death? Eduardo Andrade of Berkeley and Joel Cohen of the University of Florida argue that people are “happy to be unhappy.” The idea that people can simultaneously experience positive and negative emotions is not new–John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago has been saying that for years [2, 3]. For example, college students experienced mixed emotions when they turned in their dorm keys at graduation, or were disappointed with the amount of money they won in a game.

Robert Karl Stonjek, our intrepid Aussie moderator on the Evolutionary Psychology list, is not convinced by Andrade and Cohen’s explanation. Stonjek argues that the fantasy element of the films is crucial. People do not enjoy the real fear of being mugged. In evolutionary terms, the big advantage of scary movies is the opportunity to go through a “dry run,” or rehearse a dangerous situation, without actually having to go through with it. Completing this kind of dry run might trigger some rather primitive positive feelings. In Stonjek’s words, “From an evolutionary perspective, this is what the imagination does – it allows anticipated scenarios to be played out, rehearsed, experimented with whilst being safely remote from the real conditions imagined.”

This makes a certain amount of sense to me. Those of us who do not make firm distinctions between real and fantasy are not going to enjoy the scary fantasy material at all. In addition, my husband regularly complains that I avoid thinking about possible future negative events, a process he finds essential for peace of mind but that I find unnecessarily depressing. I take the attitude that I’ll deal with nasty stuff when it happens, which may not, in fact, be the best evolutionary strategy.

In the meantime, I think I’ll still avoid those scary movies….

1.  Andrade, E.B.,  and Cohen, J.B. (2007). On the consumption of negative feelings. Journal of Consumer Research.

2.  Larsen, J. T., McGraw, A. P., Mellers, B. A., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2004). The agony of victory and the thrill of defeat:  Mixed emotional reactions to disappointing wins and relieving losses. Psychological Science, 15, 325-330.

 3.  Larsen, J. T., McGraw, A.P., & Cacioppo, J.T. (2001). Can people feel happy and sad at the same time? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 684-696.