WEBVTT

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I really don't like to watch horror

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films alone that stuff is terrifying you

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Now I'm sure many of you recognize this

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situation. You put on a horror film, you

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turn down the lights, turn up the volume,

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and sit back. You’re watching as monsters

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come creeping out of the dark in search

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of prey. Your heart goes out to the four

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characters in the film and you start

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squirming in your seat as the monsters

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get closer.

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Your pulse accelerates, your palms get

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sweaty and your hair stands on end. This

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is when you begin to throw nervous

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glances into the corners of the room.

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What was that sound? Surely it didn't

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come from the television. Was that

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movement in the shadows? The horror that's

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on the screen bleeds into your system

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and into the surroundings. The world

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around you turns threatening and scary.

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You cover your eyes but it doesn't help.

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Pretty soon you'll have to switch off

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but even though you shut off the film,

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your heart keeps hammering and you'll

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probably have nightmares tonight. Still

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maybe you ought to put the film back on.

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You're kind of curious after all. That's

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my Saturday night in a nutshell. Anybody

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else ever been in that situation? Of all

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the strange things that humans do

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watching horror films has got to be one

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of the strangest. It's also a really

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interesting behavior scientifically

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speaking. As a horror researcher

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I've thought about it a lot. Why do we do

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it? Why do we watch horror films and

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read horror novels and play horror

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video games and why are there so many

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spooky creatures in our worlds of

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make-believe? And what is horror? Horror is

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a kind of entertainment that's designed to

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spook people. To make them scream and

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shiver with fear and break out in a cold

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sweat.

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Think Stephen King and Paranormal

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Activity and The Exorcist.

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It's a consistently popular and

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profitable genre. Stephen King has sold

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more than 350 million books worldwide. In

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the last 20 years in the United States,

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horror films grossed close to 8 billion

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dollars. It's weird it's weird because

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horror is by definition designed to make

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its audience feel bad. A good horror film

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inspires negative emotion. It makes us

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feel disgust and dread and terror and

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anxiety and fear. Let me ask you how many

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of you seek out war films from time to

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time? Show of hands. Please raise your

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hand if you sometimes seek out horror. Okay

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that's about half, that matches my own

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research along with some colleagues. I'm

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looking into the personality profile of

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horror fans and we're finding that more than

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half for about 54% answer in the

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affirmative in response to the statement:

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I tend to enjoy horror media. Only 29%

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say they don't agree with this statement

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and the remaining 17% can't make up

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their mind. You know they're probably the

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ones who would die first in a horror

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film. Next would be the ones who say

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they don't like horror. Anyway people really

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do tend to like the kind of

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entertainment that's designed to make

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them feel bad. Why is that the case and

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how does horror even work? Those are the

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kinds of questions I've been researching

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and here is what I have found out. Horror,

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in whatever medium, from films and

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literature to video games and virtual

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reality, works by exploiting an ancient

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and evolved set of biological defense

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mechanisms. Let's call it the evolved

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fear system. If we want to understand how

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that system works and why it became part

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of human nature we have to look at the

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evolutionary history of our species.

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Now, our evolutionary ancestors found

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themselves in a world that was full of

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danger. There was the threat from

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predators and creepy crawlies and

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invisible microorganisms or disease and

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the threat from other humans. In response

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to those dangers our ancestors gradually

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evolved a

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fear system that would keep them alert

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and alive. In other words our species

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evolved to be hyper vigilant and highly

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fearful because being hyper vigilant and

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highly fearful kept our ancestors alive

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in a dangerous world. The world may now

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be less dangerous than it was in

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ancestral times at least in terms of

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predation. We're not in any immediate

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danger of being attacked by a

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saber-tooth cat on our way home from

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work, but we are no less vigilant and no

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less fearful

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than our evolutionary ancestors and

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horror entertainment takes advantage of

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that aspect of human nature. So horror

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entertainment works by transporting us

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imaginatively into virtual worlds that

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are full of danger. In horror films and

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literature we follow and mirror

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protagonists as they confront terrifying

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threats. Take Stephen King's The Shining

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for example, here we follow a family who

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has snowed in at a haunted hotel. In the

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novel's most famous scene the young boy

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Danny goes into room 217.

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He walks nervously around the room and

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into the bathroom where a hotel guest

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killed herself some years before. The

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hotel is now supposed to be empty of

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guests but to Danny surprise there is

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somebody in the bathtub or something. To

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Danny's horror it's a corpse.

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It's the corpse of the woman who killed

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herself. She's lying there bloated and

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purple and with glassy white eyes. She's

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rotting like meat festering in the trash.

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And then she starts to get up. King provides

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a detailed and really vivid description

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of this moving corpse and as readers we

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are forced to hold that image in our

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minds. That's bad enough but we're also

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given a detailed description of Danny's

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response to the situation. We learned

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that he tries to scream and wets himself.

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We are made to mirror his fear and

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revulsion and that strengthens our own

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responses to the horrible image. Our fear

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and revulsion become mixed with

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sympathetic anxiety for a character in

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danger.

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It's a strong emotional cocktail.

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Interactive and live-action media turn

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the screw on horror entertainment .Or

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video games for example make you feel as

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if you're the protagonist in a digital

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if you're the protagonist in a digital

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attraction visitors walk through scary

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sets populated by scare actors. Here's a

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picture from dystopia haunted house

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Denmark's scariest haunt. What you see is

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a couple of visitors were confronted by

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a big guy with a machete.

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He's called the chef and you can take a

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guess at what's on the menu here. Around

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5,000 people pay for this every

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Halloween and around 300 visitors never

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make it all the way through the haunt.

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They have to abort their visit because

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it's too scary.

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They have fainted from fear and they

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have wet themselves in terror. Why do

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they do it? Why do people pay good money

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to experience true fear and genuine

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terror like the people in this picture?

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They do it because they have an evolved

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appetite for vicarious experience with

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threat scenarios and those scenarios or

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horror entertainment work because they are

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structured to target the evolved fear

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system. Just consider the monsters that

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populate our horror entertainment from

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scary folk tales to haunted attractions.

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Such monsters are universal in the human

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imagination and the most horrifying ones

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reflect ancestral threats. Just think of

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the enormous white shark from Jaws you

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Know. Duh duh duh duh duh duh

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the threat depicted here is the threat

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from an enormous man-eating predator.

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That kind of threat really captures our

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attention and sparks our imagination by

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engaging the evolved fear system. Now the

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film itself is pretty unrealistic but

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that doesn't matter.

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Horror monsters don't have to be

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realistic to frighten us they have to

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engage the evolved fear system. They have

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to have qualities that match or over

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match those of ancestral dangers and the

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white shark in Jaws has that in spades.

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It's like an ancestral predator on

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speed. Faster bigger stronger and much

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more dangerous. Media psychologists have

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documented how thousands of people were

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traumatized by jaws. Many viewers even

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became afraid of swimming in pools and

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freshwater lakes after watching the film.

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Consider another well-known and highly

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unrealistic monster. The zombie now

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zombies don't exist in the real world

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and we have no archaeological evidence

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to suggest that they ever did but every

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well-raised child is able to mimic the

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behavior of a zombie. You know they're

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groaning the outstretch the limp arms

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and the classic stumbling walk. The

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monster has really infected our popular

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culture in a big way. A zombie is a

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effectively targets the evolved fear

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system in fact the zombie targets the

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fear system from two angles

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because it combines the threat of

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predation with the threat of contagion. A

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zombie is a predator it wants to eat you,

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it is also contagious it will infect you

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with its disease. It is visibly

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decomposing creeping with rotten

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pathogens. I mean look at the poor

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creature.

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[Applause]

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You can tell that these horror monsters

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engage the evolved fear system from the

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behavioral and physiological effects of

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the good horror film. You know the goose

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bumps and the hammering heart and the

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screams. These are all evolved defensive

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reactions goosebumps are a relic from a

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distant past when we were covered in fur

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and goose bumps or piloerection would

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make our first stand on end and so make

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us look bigger to scare off an attacker.

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Cats do the same thing by the way. Our

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hearts beat faster to pump blood to the

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big muscle groups so that we're ready

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for fight or flight and screams send a

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signal to other people a signal for them

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to help or get the hell away. Horror taps

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into the evolved fear system but that's

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not all. Horror can help us calibrate that

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system. It's like when you take your car

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to the mechanic for a check-up the

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mechanic carefully goes through all the

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vital parts of the car and he or she

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will make sure that the airbags and the

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anti-lock braking system work. Hopefully

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you'll never need them because you don't

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want to get into a situation that

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requires an airbag to deploy but you

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certainly want them to work. Same with

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the fear system. Through exposure to

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horror you give it a test run make sure

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it works properly and keep it nicely

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tuned. Horror lets us learn what it feels

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like to be truly afraid and it lets us

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learn how to handle negative emotions. It

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lets us maintain and refine coping

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skills that we may apply in critical

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situations in our own lives. There isn't

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yet much experimental research into this

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but we do have some support from

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psychological science. One study suggests

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that hardcore horror fans require more