WHILE some people prefer romance or fantasy, others delight in the frights of horror movies. A study published in the journal 'Scientific Reports' sheds light onto why people enjoy these terrifying tales.
It may seem surprising, but some people enjoy entering into the darkness of a cinema in order to scare themselves with all kinds of onscreen frights.
For researchers at the University of Pecs, Hungary, this penchant may well be explained by the excitement of fear itself.
The study, titled "The role of excitement and enjoyment through subjective evaluation of horror film scenes", published in the journal 'Scientific Reports', explores how curiosity about morbid subjects plays a key role in driving people to watch horror movies, as do the realism of the scenes and the intensity of the fear felt.
The study, led by Botond Kiss, a PhD student and research assistant at the Institute of Psychology, University of Pecs, recruited 558 participants.
They were asked to fill out 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 horror movie sub-genres, ranging from supernatural to psychological to monster movies.
After each scene, they rated their experiences in terms of excitement, pleasure, fear, disgust and realism.
FEAR AND REALISM
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 pleasure.
In other words, for some viewers, the more realistic these films are, the more exciting and entertaining they are.
Fear, especially, is particularly associated with excitement and pleasure.
On the other hand, scenes that evoke a strong sense of disgust tend to diminish the viewer's pleasure, without necessarily reducing excitement.
"Previous approaches did not distinguish between enjoyment and excitement," 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 dispels a long-held cliche in suggesting that horror movie fans are not necessarily thrill-seekers.
And whatever their personal beliefs in the supernatural or their sensitivity to disgust, these parameters didn't seem to influence viewers' reactions either:
"As some horror consumers can be described as thrill-seekers, they experience the fear-induced adrenaline as rewarding.
This seems to have an indirect effect through other factors," Kiss told PsyPost.
It is important to note the limitations of this study. Most of the participants were horror movie fans, and therefore, already had a certain taste for this genre.
"In this research, we looked at direct effects. So, if one factor had an effect through another factor, we could not detect it. This would require more complex analyses," explains Kiss.
"Moreover, the content of the different genres of horror films is quite different. Just think about how different the content of a psychological horror movie and a zombie horror movie is. So, in the future, it might be worth taking this into account."
"Our direct long-term plan is to identify certain motivations for why people consume such content," says Kiss.
"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 (for example, animal phobias or blood-injury-injection phobia)."