Sunday, October 31, 2010

Why Do People Love to be Scared?

Here's a good article explaining that we have the human capacity to "gauge realistically the actual level of threat," and thus experience excitement rather than fear.

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

Every Halloween, Americans spend millions on scary fun. From haunted
houses to horror movies, teens as well as adults seem to crave a good
spine-chilling scare.

People enjoy feeling scared and seek the feeling out because, deep
down, they know they are in no real danger, according to David Rudd,
dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University
of Utah.

They understand the real risk of these activities is marginal, and
because of this underlying awareness, they experience excitement
rather than actual fear
, Rudd explained. This is why people enjoy
going on terrifying amusement park rides and walking through a
Halloween-themed haunted house.

Read more at news.yahoo.com
 

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