WEBVTT 00:00:18.898 --> 00:00:20.786 I really don't like to watch horror 00:00:20.786 --> 00:00:23.645 films alone. That stuff is terrifying you 00:00:23.645 --> 00:00:26.183 know? I'm sure many of you recognize this 00:00:26.183 --> 00:00:28.824 situation. You put on a horror film, you 00:00:28.824 --> 00:00:31.648 turn down the lights, turn up the volume, 00:00:31.648 --> 00:00:35.258 and sit back. You’re watching as monsters 00:00:35.258 --> 00:00:37.164 come creeping out of the dark in search 00:00:37.164 --> 00:00:39.636 of prey. Your heart goes out to the four 00:00:39.636 --> 00:00:42.360 characters in the film and you start 00:00:42.360 --> 00:00:44.181 squirming in your seat as the monsters 00:00:44.181 --> 00:00:46.288 get closer. 00:00:46.288 --> 00:00:48.259 Your pulse accelerates, your palms get 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:52.769 sweaty and your hair stands on end. This 00:00:52.769 --> 00:00:54.708 is when you begin to throw nervous 00:00:54.708 --> 00:00:58.253 glances into the corners of the room. 00:00:58.253 --> 00:01:00.375 What was that sound? Surely it didn't 00:01:00.375 --> 00:01:03.198 come from the television. Was that 00:01:03.198 --> 00:01:07.309 movement in the shadows? The horror that's 00:01:07.309 --> 00:01:09.466 on the screen bleeds into your system 00:01:09.466 --> 00:01:11.689 and into the surroundings. The world 00:01:11.689 --> 00:01:14.680 around you turns threatening and scary. 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:16.869 You cover your eyes but it doesn't help. 00:01:16.869 --> 00:01:19.109 Pretty soon you'll have to switch off 00:01:19.109 --> 00:01:21.164 but even though you shut off the film, 00:01:21.164 --> 00:01:24.422 your heart keeps hammering and you'll 00:01:24.422 --> 00:01:27.581 probably have nightmares tonight. Still 00:01:27.581 --> 00:01:30.053 maybe you ought to put the film back on. 00:01:30.053 --> 00:01:33.145 You're kind of curious after all. That's 00:01:33.145 --> 00:01:36.487 my Saturday night in a nutshell. Anybody 00:01:36.487 --> 00:01:40.415 else ever been in that situation? Of all 00:01:40.415 --> 00:01:42.587 the strange things that humans do 00:01:42.587 --> 00:01:44.559 watching horror films has got to be one 00:01:44.559 --> 00:01:46.848 of the strangest. It's also a really 00:01:46.848 --> 00:01:48.786 interesting behavior scientifically 00:01:48.786 --> 00:01:50.593 speaking. As a horror researcher 00:01:50.593 --> 00:01:53.082 I've thought about it a lot. Why do we do 00:01:53.082 --> 00:01:55.139 it? Why do we watch horror films and 00:01:55.139 --> 00:01:56.943 read horror novels and play horror 00:01:56.943 --> 00:01:59.951 video games and why are there so many 00:01:59.951 --> 00:02:01.838 spooky creatures in our worlds of 00:02:01.838 --> 00:02:06.318 make-believe? And what is horror? Horror is 00:02:06.318 --> 00:02:08.540 a kind of entertainment that's designed to 00:02:08.540 --> 00:02:10.730 spook people. To make them scream and 00:02:10.730 --> 00:02:12.249 shiver with fear and break out in a cold 00:02:12.249 --> 00:02:13.688 sweat. 00:02:13.688 --> 00:02:15.710 Think Stephen King and Paranormal 00:02:15.710 --> 00:02:17.749 Activity and The Exorcist. 00:02:17.749 --> 00:02:20.322 It's a consistently popular and 00:02:20.322 --> 00:02:23.094 profitable genre. Stephen King has sold 00:02:23.094 --> 00:02:27.507 more than 350 million books worldwide. In 00:02:27.507 --> 00:02:29.531 the last 20 years in the United States, 00:02:29.531 --> 00:02:32.002 horror films grossed close to 8 billion 00:02:32.002 --> 00:02:35.896 dollars. It's weird it's weird because 00:02:35.896 --> 00:02:38.369 horror is by definition designed to make 00:02:38.369 --> 00:02:41.229 its audience feel bad. A good horror film 00:02:41.229 --> 00:02:43.361 inspires negative emotion. It makes us 00:02:43.361 --> 00:02:46.168 feel disgust and dread and terror and 00:02:46.168 --> 00:02:49.843 anxiety and fear. Let me ask you how many 00:02:49.843 --> 00:02:52.860 of you seek out horror films from time to 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:54.565 time? Show of hands. Please raise your 00:02:54.565 --> 00:02:57.723 hand if you sometimes seek out horror. Okay 00:02:57.723 --> 00:03:00.197 that's about half, that matches my own 00:03:00.197 --> 00:03:02.051 research along with some colleagues. I'm 00:03:02.051 --> 00:03:04.223 looking into the personality profile of 00:03:04.223 --> 00:03:06.746 horror fans and we're finding that more than 00:03:06.746 --> 00:03:09.655 half for about 54% answer in the 00:03:09.655 --> 00:03:12.112 affirmative in response to the statement: 00:03:12.112 --> 00:03:15.823 I tend to enjoy horror media. Only 29% 00:03:15.823 --> 00:03:18.429 say they don't agree with this statement 00:03:18.429 --> 00:03:20.401 and the remaining 17% can't make up 00:03:20.401 --> 00:03:23.176 their mind. You know they're probably the 00:03:23.176 --> 00:03:24.695 ones who would die first in a horror 00:03:24.695 --> 00:03:29.306 film. Next would be the ones who say 00:03:29.306 --> 00:03:34.923 they don't like horror. Anyway people really 00:03:34.923 --> 00:03:36.660 do tend to like the kind of 00:03:36.660 --> 00:03:37.897 entertainment that's designed to make 00:03:37.897 --> 00:03:39.302 them feel bad. Why is that the case and 00:03:39.302 --> 00:03:42.427 how does horror even work? Those are the 00:03:42.427 --> 00:03:44.197 kinds of questions I've been researching 00:03:44.197 --> 00:03:47.690 and here is what I have found out. Horror, 00:03:47.690 --> 00:03:49.495 in whatever medium, from films and 00:03:49.495 --> 00:03:51.567 literature to video games and virtual 00:03:51.567 --> 00:03:54.910 reality, works by exploiting an ancient 00:03:54.910 --> 00:03:57.315 and evolved set of biological defense 00:03:57.315 --> 00:03:59.671 mechanisms. Let's call it the evolved 00:03:59.671 --> 00:04:03.283 fear system. If we want to understand how 00:04:03.283 --> 00:04:05.571 that system works and why it became part 00:04:05.571 --> 00:04:07.309 of human nature we have to look at the 00:04:07.309 --> 00:04:09.982 evolutionary history of our species. 00:04:09.982 --> 00:04:12.759 Now, our evolutionary ancestors found 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:14.263 themselves in a world that was full of 00:04:14.263 --> 00:04:16.450 danger. There was the threat from 00:04:16.450 --> 00:04:18.623 predators and creepy crawlies and 00:04:18.623 --> 00:04:21.413 invisible microorganisms or disease and 00:04:21.413 --> 00:04:24.220 the threat from other humans. In response 00:04:24.220 --> 00:04:27.028 to those dangers our ancestors gradually 00:04:27.028 --> 00:04:28.298 evolved a 00:04:28.298 --> 00:04:29.969 fear system that would keep them alert 00:04:29.969 --> 00:04:33.780 and alive. In other words our species 00:04:33.780 --> 00:04:35.868 evolved to be hyper vigilant and highly 00:04:35.868 --> 00:04:38.309 fearful because being hyper vigilant and 00:04:38.309 --> 00:04:40.715 highly fearful kept our ancestors alive 00:04:40.715 --> 00:04:44.142 in a dangerous world. The world may now 00:04:44.142 --> 00:04:45.511 be less dangerous than it was in 00:04:45.511 --> 00:04:47.132 ancestral times at least in terms of 00:04:47.132 --> 00:04:49.022 predation. We're not in any immediate 00:04:49.022 --> 00:04:51.562 danger of being attacked by a 00:04:51.562 --> 00:04:53.215 saber-tooth cat on our way home from 00:04:53.215 --> 00:04:56.006 work, but we are no less vigilant and no 00:04:56.006 --> 00:04:57.310 less fearful 00:04:57.310 --> 00:05:00.000 than our evolutionary ancestors and 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.038 horror entertainment takes advantage of 00:05:02.038 --> 00:05:07.019 that aspect of human nature. So horror 00:05:07.019 --> 00:05:09.459 entertainment works by transporting us 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:12.266 imaginatively into virtual worlds that 00:05:12.266 --> 00:05:15.140 are full of danger. In horror films and 00:05:15.140 --> 00:05:17.129 literature we follow and mirror 00:05:17.129 --> 00:05:19.653 protagonists as they confront terrifying 00:05:19.653 --> 00:05:22.894 threats. Take Stephen King's The Shining 00:05:22.894 --> 00:05:24.998 for example. Here we follow a family who 00:05:24.998 --> 00:05:29.224 has snowed in at a haunted hotel. In the 00:05:29.224 --> 00:05:31.148 novel's most famous scene the young boy 00:05:31.148 --> 00:05:34.540 Danny goes into room 217. 00:05:34.540 --> 00:05:36.897 He walks nervously around the room and 00:05:36.897 --> 00:05:38.969 into the bathroom where a hotel guest 00:05:38.969 --> 00:05:42.544 killed herself some years before. The 00:05:42.544 --> 00:05:44.132 hotel is now supposed to be empty of 00:05:44.132 --> 00:05:46.826 guests but to Danny surprise there is 00:05:46.826 --> 00:05:50.465 somebody in the bathtub or something. To 00:05:50.465 --> 00:05:53.489 Danny's horror it's a corpse. 00:05:53.489 --> 00:05:55.980 It's the corpse of the woman who killed 00:05:55.980 --> 99:59:59.999 herself. She's lying there bloated and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 purple and with glassy white eyes. She's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 rotting like meat festering in the trash. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then she starts to get up. King provides 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a detailed and really vivid description 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of this moving corpse and as readers we 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are forced to hold that image in our 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 minds. That's bad enough but we're also 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 given a detailed description of Danny's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 response to the situation. We learned 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that he tries to scream and wets himself. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We are made to mirror his fear and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 revulsion and that strengthens our own 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 responses to the horrible image. Our fear 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and revulsion become mixed with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sympathetic anxiety for a character in 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 danger. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's a strong emotional cocktail. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Interactive and live-action media turn 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the screw on horror entertainment .Or 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 video games for example make you feel as 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you're the protagonist in a digital 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if you're the protagonist in a digital 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 attraction visitors walk through scary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sets populated by scare actors. Here's a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 picture from dystopia haunted house 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Denmark's scariest haunt. What you see is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a couple of visitors were confronted by 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a big guy with a machete. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He's called the chef and you can take a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 guess at what's on the menu here. Around 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 5,000 people pay for this every 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Halloween and around 300 visitors never 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 make it all the way through the haunt. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They have to abort their visit because 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's too scary. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They have fainted from fear and they 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 have wet themselves in terror. Why do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 they do it? Why do people pay good money 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to experience true fear and genuine 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 terror like the people in this picture? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They do it because they have an evolved 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 appetite for vicarious experience with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 threat scenarios and those scenarios or 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 horror entertainment work because they are 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 structured to target the evolved fear 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 system. Just consider the monsters that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 populate our horror entertainment from 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 scary folk tales to haunted attractions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Such monsters are universal in the human 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 imagination and the most horrifying ones 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reflect ancestral threats. Just think of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the enormous white shark from Jaws you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Know. Duh duh duh duh duh duh 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the threat depicted here is the threat 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 from an enormous man-eating predator. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That kind of threat really captures our 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 attention and sparks our imagination by 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 engaging the evolved fear system. Now the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 film itself is pretty unrealistic but 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that doesn't matter. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Horror monsters don't have to be 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 realistic to frighten us they have to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 engage the evolved fear system. They have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to have qualities that match or over 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 match those of ancestral dangers and the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 white shark in Jaws has that in spades. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's like an ancestral predator on 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 speed. Faster bigger stronger and much 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 more dangerous. Media psychologists have 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 documented how thousands of people were 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 traumatized by jaws. Many viewers even 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 became afraid of swimming in pools and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 freshwater lakes after watching the film. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Consider another well-known and highly 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 unrealistic monster. The zombie now 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 zombies don't exist in the real world 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we have no archaeological evidence 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to suggest that they ever did but every 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 well-raised child is able to mimic the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 behavior of a zombie. You know they're 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 groaning the outstretch the limp arms 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the classic stumbling walk. The 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 monster has really infected our popular 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 culture in a big way. A zombie is a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 effectively targets the evolved fear 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 system in fact the zombie targets the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fear system from two angles 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because it combines the threat of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 predation with the threat of contagion. A 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 zombie is a predator it wants to eat you, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it is also contagious it will infect you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 with its disease. It is visibly 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 decomposing creeping with rotten 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 pathogens. I mean look at the poor 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 creature. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Applause] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You can tell that these horror monsters 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 engage the evolved fear system from the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 behavioral and physiological effects of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the good horror film. You know the goose 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 bumps and the hammering heart and the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 screams. These are all evolved defensive 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reactions goosebumps are a relic from a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 distant past when we were covered in fur 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and goose bumps or piloerection would 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 make our first stand on end and so make 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 us look bigger to scare off an attacker. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Cats do the same thing by the way. Our 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hearts beat faster to pump blood to the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 big muscle groups so that we're ready 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 for fight or flight and screams send a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 signal to other people a signal for them 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to help or get the hell away. Horror taps 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into the evolved fear system but that's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 not all. Horror can help us calibrate that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 system. It's like when you take your car 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to the mechanic for a check-up the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 mechanic carefully goes through all the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 vital parts of the car and he or she 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 will make sure that the airbags and the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 anti-lock braking system work. Hopefully 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you'll never need them because you don't 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 want to get into a situation that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 requires an airbag to deploy but you 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 certainly want them to work. Same with 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the fear system. Through exposure to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 horror you give it a test run make sure 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it works properly and keep it nicely 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 tuned. Horror lets us learn what it feels 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like to be truly afraid and it lets us 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 learn how to handle negative emotions. It 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 lets us maintain and refine coping 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 skills that we may apply in critical 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 situations in our own lives. There isn't 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 yet much experimental research into this 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but we do have some support from 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 psychological science. One study suggests 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that hardcore horror fans require more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 extreme stimulation than to less avid 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fans which means that the hardcore fans 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 build up some resistance to fear 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 provoking stimuli with exposure. Other 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 research suggests that by exposing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ourselves to horror we build a sense of 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 mastery which may be transferred to our 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 own lives. In this way horror can help us 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 find and even expand our limits for how 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 much negative stimulation we can handle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 you know I'm not sure I'd be standing 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 here today if I hadn't for 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 myself to watch all those horror films 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in the name of science. Sure my heart is 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 hammering and my palms are a little 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sweaty but you guys are a lot less scary 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 than Pennywise the dancing clown. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So horror can help us calibrate the fear 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 system and horror can help us refine our 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 coping skills. That's why so many of us 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 are drawn to the genre even if we don't 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like to watch horror films alone. The 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 next time you are terrified of a novel, a 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 film a video game, or in a haunt, just 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 remember that you are in fact tapping 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 into and calibrating an ancient 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 biological defense system. Never mind the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 fear and the screams and the nightmares. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who’s up for a horror film tonight? Thank you. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 [Applause]