1
00:00:18,791 --> 00:00:22,039
I really don't like
to watch horror films alone.

2
00:00:22,039 --> 00:00:24,537
That stuff is terrifying, you know.

3
00:00:24,867 --> 00:00:27,838
I'm sure many of you
recognize this situation.

4
00:00:27,838 --> 00:00:29,206
You put on a horror film,

5
00:00:29,206 --> 00:00:30,575
you turn down the lights,

6
00:00:30,575 --> 00:00:33,472
turn up the volume, and sit back.

7
00:00:33,472 --> 00:00:36,477
You're watching as monsters
come creeping out of the dark

8
00:00:36,477 --> 00:00:38,503
in search of prey.

9
00:00:38,503 --> 00:00:41,280
Your heart goes out
to the poor characters in the film,

10
00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,400
and you start squirming in your seat
as the monsters get closer.

11
00:00:45,683 --> 00:00:47,745
Your pulse accelerates,

12
00:00:47,745 --> 00:00:49,267
your palms get sweaty,

13
00:00:49,267 --> 00:00:52,028
and your hair stands on end.

14
00:00:52,468 --> 00:00:55,314
This is when you begin
to throw nervous glances

15
00:00:55,314 --> 00:00:57,538
into the corners of the room.

16
00:00:58,038 --> 00:00:59,853
What was that sound?

17
00:00:59,853 --> 00:01:01,858
Surely it didn't come from the television?

18
00:01:02,882 --> 00:01:05,441
Was that movement in the shadows?

19
00:01:06,381 --> 00:01:08,075
The horror that's on the screen

20
00:01:08,075 --> 00:01:11,297
bleeds in through your system
and into the surroundings.

21
00:01:11,297 --> 00:01:14,869
The world around you
turns threatening and scary.

22
00:01:14,869 --> 00:01:17,718
You cover your eyes, but it doesn't help.

23
00:01:17,718 --> 00:01:19,580
Pretty soon, you'll have to switch off.

24
00:01:19,580 --> 00:01:23,671
But even though you shut off the film,
your heart keeps hammering away.

25
00:01:24,191 --> 00:01:26,547
You'll probably have nightmares tonight.

26
00:01:26,997 --> 00:01:30,121
Still, maybe you ought
to put the film back on.

27
00:01:30,121 --> 00:01:32,300
You are kind of curious, after all.

28
00:01:32,940 --> 00:01:34,930
That's my Saturday night in a nutshell.

29
00:01:34,930 --> 00:01:35,926
(Laughter)

30
00:01:35,926 --> 00:01:38,522
Anybody else ever been in that situation?

31
00:01:40,052 --> 00:01:42,428
Of all the strange things that humans do,

32
00:01:42,428 --> 00:01:46,073
watching horror films
has got to be one of the strangest.

33
00:01:46,073 --> 00:01:49,326
It's also a really interesting behavior,
scientifically speaking.

34
00:01:49,568 --> 00:01:52,714
As a horror researcher,
I have thought about it a lot.

35
00:01:52,714 --> 00:01:54,025
Why do we do it?

36
00:01:54,025 --> 00:01:56,402
Why do we watch horror films
and read horror novels

37
00:01:56,402 --> 00:01:58,512
and play horror video games?

38
00:01:58,512 --> 00:02:03,246
And why are there so many spooky creatures
in our worlds of make-believe?

39
00:02:03,246 --> 00:02:04,787
And what is horror?

40
00:02:05,587 --> 00:02:09,350
Horror is a kind of entertainment
that's designed to spook people,

41
00:02:09,350 --> 00:02:13,615
to make them scream and shiver with fear
and break out in a cold sweat.

42
00:02:13,615 --> 00:02:16,021
Think Stephen King
and "Paranormal Activity"

43
00:02:16,021 --> 00:02:18,029
and "The Exorcist."

44
00:02:18,439 --> 00:02:22,431
It's a consistently popular
and profitable genre.

45
00:02:22,431 --> 00:02:27,317
Stephen King has sold
more than 350 million books worldwide.

46
00:02:27,317 --> 00:02:29,637
In the last 20 years,
in the United States,

47
00:02:29,637 --> 00:02:33,400
horror films grossed
close to 8 billion dollars.

48
00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:34,874
It's weird.

49
00:02:34,874 --> 00:02:40,405
It's weird because horror is by definition
designed to make its audience feel bad.

50
00:02:40,405 --> 00:02:42,931
A good horror film
inspires negative emotion.

51
00:02:42,931 --> 00:02:47,746
It makes us feel disgust and dread
and terror and anxiety and fear.

52
00:02:48,376 --> 00:02:49,377
Let me ask you -

53
00:02:49,377 --> 00:02:52,461
how many of you seek out
horror films from time to time?

54
00:02:52,461 --> 00:02:53,542
Show of hands, please.

55
00:02:53,542 --> 00:02:55,940
Raise your hand if you
sometimes seek out horror.

56
00:02:57,285 --> 00:02:59,062
Okay, that's about half.

57
00:02:59,062 --> 00:03:00,826
That matches my own research.

58
00:03:00,826 --> 00:03:02,118
Along with some colleagues,

59
00:03:02,118 --> 00:03:05,061
I'm looking into the personality
profile of horror fans,

60
00:03:05,061 --> 00:03:07,152
and we're finding that more than half,

61
00:03:07,152 --> 00:03:08,922
or about 54%,

62
00:03:08,922 --> 00:03:11,777
answer in the affirmative
in response to the statement

63
00:03:11,777 --> 00:03:14,185
"I tend to enjoy horror media."

64
00:03:14,755 --> 00:03:18,175
Only 29% say they don't agree
with this statement,

65
00:03:18,175 --> 00:03:20,967
and the remaining 17%
can't make up their mind.

66
00:03:20,967 --> 00:03:22,099
(Laughter)

67
00:03:22,099 --> 00:03:25,521
You know, they're probably the ones
who would die first in a horror film.

68
00:03:25,521 --> 00:03:27,048
(Laughter)

69
00:03:27,300 --> 00:03:30,176
Next would be the ones
who say they don't like horror.

70
00:03:30,176 --> 00:03:31,206
(Laughter)

71
00:03:31,206 --> 00:03:32,529
Anyway,

72
00:03:34,192 --> 00:03:35,623
people really do tend to like

73
00:03:35,623 --> 00:03:38,626
the kind of entertainment
that's designed to make them feel bad.

74
00:03:38,626 --> 00:03:41,625
Why is that the case?
And how does horror even work?

75
00:03:42,015 --> 00:03:44,599
Those are the kinds of questions
I've been researching,

76
00:03:44,599 --> 00:03:46,261
and here is what I've found out.

77
00:03:47,151 --> 00:03:49,003
Horror, in whatever medium,

78
00:03:49,003 --> 00:03:52,840
from films and literature
to video games and virtual reality,

79
00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:58,712
works by exploiting an ancient and evolved
set of biological defense mechanisms.

80
00:03:58,712 --> 00:04:01,493
Let's call it the "evolved fear system."

81
00:04:02,093 --> 00:04:04,231
If we want to understand
how that system works

82
00:04:04,231 --> 00:04:06,254
and why it became part of human nature,

83
00:04:06,254 --> 00:04:09,988
we have to look at the evolutionary
history of our species.

84
00:04:10,308 --> 00:04:12,272
Now, our evolutionary ancestors

85
00:04:12,272 --> 00:04:15,636
found themselves in a world
that was full of danger.

86
00:04:15,636 --> 00:04:18,444
There was the threat
from predators and creepy-crawlies

87
00:04:18,444 --> 00:04:21,234
and invisible microorganisms or disease,

88
00:04:21,234 --> 00:04:23,765
and the threat from other humans.

89
00:04:23,765 --> 00:04:25,312
In response to those dangers,

90
00:04:25,312 --> 00:04:28,483
our ancestors gradually
evolved a fear system

91
00:04:28,483 --> 00:04:31,551
that would keep them alert and alive.

92
00:04:31,881 --> 00:04:36,825
In other words, our species evolved
to be hypervigilant and highly fearful

93
00:04:36,825 --> 00:04:39,303
because being hypervigilant
and highly fearful

94
00:04:39,303 --> 00:04:42,434
kept our ancestors alive
in a dangerous world.

95
00:04:42,814 --> 00:04:46,517
The world may now be less dangerous
than it was in ancestral times,

96
00:04:46,517 --> 00:04:48,385
at least in terms of predation:

97
00:04:48,385 --> 00:04:50,289
we're not in any immediate danger

98
00:04:50,289 --> 00:04:54,029
of being attacked by a saber-toothed cat
on our way home from work.

99
00:04:54,029 --> 00:04:56,722
But we are no less vigilant
and no less fearful

100
00:04:56,840 --> 00:04:59,387
than our evolutionary ancestors.

101
00:04:59,777 --> 00:05:04,361
And horror entertainment takes advantage
of that aspect of human nature.

102
00:05:04,991 --> 00:05:10,741
So horror entertainment works
by transporting us imaginatively

103
00:05:10,741 --> 00:05:14,158
into virtual worlds
that are full of danger.

104
00:05:14,158 --> 00:05:15,775
In horror films and literature,

105
00:05:15,775 --> 00:05:20,867
we follow and mirror protagonists
as they confront terrifying threats.

106
00:05:21,447 --> 00:05:24,461
Take Stephen King's
"The Shining," for example.

107
00:05:24,461 --> 00:05:28,169
Here, we follow a family
who is snowed in at a haunted hotel.

108
00:05:28,859 --> 00:05:30,587
In the novel's most famous scene,

109
00:05:30,587 --> 00:05:34,255
the young boy, Danny, goes into room 217.

110
00:05:34,715 --> 00:05:38,018
He walks nervously around the room
and into the bathroom

111
00:05:38,018 --> 00:05:41,363
where a hotel guest killed herself
some years before.

112
00:05:42,173 --> 00:05:44,420
The hotel is now supposed to be
empty of guests,

113
00:05:44,420 --> 00:05:48,469
but to Danny's surprise,
there is somebody in the bathtub -

114
00:05:48,469 --> 00:05:49,976
or some thing.

115
00:05:50,526 --> 00:05:53,435
To Danny's horror, it's a corpse.

116
00:05:54,145 --> 00:05:56,752
It's the corpse of the woman
who killed herself.

117
00:05:56,752 --> 00:05:57,794
She's lying there,

118
00:05:57,794 --> 00:06:01,397
bloated and purple
and with glassy, wide eyes.

119
00:06:01,397 --> 00:06:04,832
She's rotting like meat
festering in the trash.

120
00:06:05,292 --> 00:06:07,489
And then she starts to get up.

121
00:06:08,589 --> 00:06:11,117
King provides a detailed
and really vivid description

122
00:06:11,117 --> 00:06:12,528
of this moving corpse,

123
00:06:12,528 --> 00:06:16,123
and as readers, we are forced
to hold that image in our minds.

124
00:06:16,123 --> 00:06:17,366
That's bad enough.

125
00:06:17,366 --> 00:06:19,366
But we're also given
a detailed description

126
00:06:19,366 --> 00:06:21,829
of Danny's response to the situation.

127
00:06:21,829 --> 00:06:25,485
We learn that he tries to scream
and wets himself.

128
00:06:25,485 --> 00:06:28,503
We are made to mirror
his fear and revulsion,

129
00:06:28,503 --> 00:06:32,336
and that strengthens our own responses
to the horrible image.

130
00:06:32,336 --> 00:06:33,503
Our fear and revulsion

131
00:06:33,503 --> 00:06:38,395
become mixed with sympathetic anxiety
for a character in danger.

132
00:06:38,395 --> 00:06:41,008
It's a strong emotional cocktail.

133
00:06:42,708 --> 00:06:47,135
Interactive and live-action media
turn the screw on horror entertainment.

134
00:06:47,625 --> 00:06:49,208
Horror video games, for example,

135
00:06:49,208 --> 00:06:55,406
make you feel as if you're the protagonist
in a digital world populated by monsters.

136
00:06:55,406 --> 00:06:56,787
In a haunted attraction,

137
00:06:56,787 --> 00:07:01,201
visitors walk through scary sets
populated by scare actors.

138
00:07:01,621 --> 00:07:04,010
Here's a picture
from Dystopia Haunted House,

139
00:07:04,010 --> 00:07:06,267
Denmark's scariest haunt.

140
00:07:06,267 --> 00:07:07,986
What you see is a couple of visitors

141
00:07:07,986 --> 00:07:11,432
who were confronted
by a big guy with a machete.

142
00:07:11,432 --> 00:07:12,749
He's called "Le Chef,"

143
00:07:12,749 --> 00:07:15,251
and you can take a guess
at what's on the menu here.

144
00:07:15,251 --> 00:07:16,759
(Laughter)

145
00:07:17,389 --> 00:07:21,687
Around 5,000 people
pay for this every Halloween,

146
00:07:21,687 --> 00:07:25,133
and around 300 visitors never make it
all the way through the haunt.

147
00:07:25,133 --> 00:07:26,133
(Laughter)

148
00:07:26,133 --> 00:07:28,963
They have to abort their visit
because it's too scary.

149
00:07:29,137 --> 00:07:33,253
They have fainted from fear,
and they have wet themselves in terror.

150
00:07:33,623 --> 00:07:35,254
Why do they do it?

151
00:07:35,844 --> 00:07:37,184
Why do people pay good money

152
00:07:37,184 --> 00:07:39,344
to experience true fear
and genuine terror

153
00:07:39,344 --> 00:07:41,470
like the people in this picture?

154
00:07:42,940 --> 00:07:45,510
They do it because they have
an evolved appetite

155
00:07:45,510 --> 00:07:49,169
for vicarious experience
with threat scenarios.

156
00:07:49,169 --> 00:07:51,915
And those scenarios,
our horror entertainment,

157
00:07:51,915 --> 00:07:57,316
work because they are structured
to target the evolved fear system.

158
00:07:58,656 --> 00:08:01,753
Just consider the monsters
that populate our horror entertainment,

159
00:08:01,753 --> 00:08:05,012
from scary folk tales
to haunted attractions.

160
00:08:05,012 --> 00:08:08,074
Such monsters are universal
in the human imagination,

161
00:08:08,074 --> 00:08:12,473
and the most horrifying ones
reflect ancestral threats.

162
00:08:14,023 --> 00:08:16,677
Just think of the enormous
white shark from "Jaws."

163
00:08:16,677 --> 00:08:17,680
You know -

164
00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:21,499
(Hums "Jaws" theme song)
doo doo; doo doo; doo doo.

165
00:08:21,939 --> 00:08:27,027
The threat depicted here is the threat
from an enormous, man-eating predator.

166
00:08:27,027 --> 00:08:31,043
That kind of threat really captures
our attention and sparks our imagination

167
00:08:31,043 --> 00:08:33,810
by engaging the evolved fear system.

168
00:08:34,230 --> 00:08:36,394
Now, the film itself
is pretty unrealistic,

169
00:08:36,394 --> 00:08:37,923
but that doesn't matter.

170
00:08:37,923 --> 00:08:41,859
Horror monsters don't
have to be realistic to frighten us;

171
00:08:41,859 --> 00:08:44,387
they have to engage
the evolved fear system.

172
00:08:44,387 --> 00:08:49,694
They have to have qualities that match
or overmatch those of ancestral dangers.

173
00:08:49,694 --> 00:08:53,005
And the white shark in "Jaws"
has that in spades.

174
00:08:53,005 --> 00:08:55,379
It's like an ancestral predator on speed -

175
00:08:55,379 --> 00:08:59,004
faster, bigger, stronger,
and much more dangerous.

176
00:08:59,354 --> 00:09:01,138
Media psychologists have documented

177
00:09:01,138 --> 00:09:04,764
how thousands of people
were traumatized by "Jaws."

178
00:09:05,204 --> 00:09:08,811
Many viewers even became afraid 
of swimming in pools and freshwater lakes

179
00:09:08,811 --> 00:09:10,688
after watching the film.

180
00:09:10,822 --> 00:09:12,152
(Laughter)

181
00:09:13,356 --> 00:09:17,494
Consider another well-known
and highly unrealistic monster:

182
00:09:17,494 --> 00:09:18,716
the zombie.

183
00:09:18,716 --> 00:09:21,362
Now, zombies don't exist
in the real world,

184
00:09:21,362 --> 00:09:24,874
and we have no archaeological evidence
to suggest that they ever did.

185
00:09:24,874 --> 00:09:28,959
But every well-raised child is able
to mimic the behavior of a zombie.

186
00:09:28,959 --> 00:09:30,712
You know, their groaning,

187
00:09:31,132 --> 00:09:32,324
(Zombie groans)

188
00:09:32,324 --> 00:09:34,526
the outstretched but limp arms,

189
00:09:34,886 --> 00:09:37,152
and the classic stumbling walk.

190
00:09:37,832 --> 00:09:41,322
The monster has really infected
our popular culture in a big way.

191
00:09:42,013 --> 00:09:43,685
A zombie is a terrifying concept

192
00:09:43,685 --> 00:09:46,419
because it effectively targets
the evolved fear system.

193
00:09:46,419 --> 00:09:50,244
In fact, the zombie targets
the fear system from two angles

194
00:09:50,244 --> 00:09:52,687
because it combines
the threat of predation

195
00:09:52,687 --> 00:09:54,836
with the threat of contagion.

196
00:09:54,836 --> 00:09:57,635
A zombie is a predator -
it wants to eat you.

197
00:09:57,635 --> 00:10:01,286
It is also contagious -
it will infect you with its disease.

198
00:10:01,286 --> 00:10:05,541
It is visibly decomposing,
creeping with rotten pathogens.

199
00:10:05,541 --> 00:10:07,163
I mean, look at the poor creature.

200
00:10:07,163 --> 00:10:08,452
(Laughter)

201
00:10:08,953 --> 00:10:10,183
Shoo.

202
00:10:13,472 --> 00:10:15,082
(Laughter)

203
00:10:15,082 --> 00:10:17,080
(Applause)

204
00:10:25,584 --> 00:10:29,414
You can tell that these horror monsters
engage the evolved fear system

205
00:10:29,414 --> 00:10:32,067
from the behavioral
and physiological effects

206
00:10:32,067 --> 00:10:33,631
of the good horror film.

207
00:10:33,631 --> 00:10:36,883
You know, the goose bumps
and the hammering heart and the screams.

208
00:10:36,883 --> 00:10:39,564
These are all evolved defensive reactions.

209
00:10:39,564 --> 00:10:41,841
Goose bumps are a relic
from a distant past,

210
00:10:41,841 --> 00:10:43,593
when we were covered in fur.

211
00:10:43,593 --> 00:10:47,256
The goose bumps, or piloerection,
would make our fur stand on end

212
00:10:47,256 --> 00:10:50,481
and so make us look bigger
to scare off an attacker.

213
00:10:50,481 --> 00:10:53,093
Cats do the same thing, by the way.

214
00:10:53,093 --> 00:10:55,952
Our hearts beat faster
to pump blood to the big muscle groups

215
00:10:55,952 --> 00:10:58,635
so that we're ready for fight or flight.

216
00:10:58,635 --> 00:11:01,832
And screams send a signal
to other people -

217
00:11:01,832 --> 00:11:04,933
a signal for them to help
or get the hell away.

218
00:11:05,373 --> 00:11:07,969
Horror taps into the evolved fear system,

219
00:11:07,969 --> 00:11:09,825
but that's not all.

220
00:11:09,825 --> 00:11:13,027
Horror can help us calibrate that system.

221
00:11:13,657 --> 00:11:16,955
It's like when you take your car
to the mechanic for a checkup.

222
00:11:17,545 --> 00:11:20,729
The mechanic carefully goes through
all the vital parts of the car,

223
00:11:20,729 --> 00:11:22,069
and he or she will make sure

224
00:11:22,069 --> 00:11:25,347
that the airbags and the anti-lock
braking system work.

225
00:11:25,827 --> 00:11:27,450
Hopefully, you'll never need them,

226
00:11:27,450 --> 00:11:29,593
because you don't want
to get into a situation

227
00:11:29,593 --> 00:11:31,213
that requires an airbag to deploy,

228
00:11:31,213 --> 00:11:33,721
but you certainly want them to work.

229
00:11:33,721 --> 00:11:35,802
Same with the fear system.

230
00:11:35,802 --> 00:11:38,955
Through exposure to horror,
you give it a test run,

231
00:11:38,955 --> 00:11:42,321
make sure it works properly,
and keep it nicely tuned.

232
00:11:43,211 --> 00:11:46,496
Horror lets us learn
what it feels like to be truly afraid,

233
00:11:46,496 --> 00:11:49,643
and it lets us learn
how to handle negative emotions.

234
00:11:49,778 --> 00:11:53,126
It lets us maintain
and refine coping skills

235
00:11:53,126 --> 00:11:57,260
that we may apply in critical
situations in our own lives.

236
00:11:58,380 --> 00:12:00,929
There isn't yet much
experimental research into this,

237
00:12:00,929 --> 00:12:04,377
but we do have some support
from psychological science.

238
00:12:04,887 --> 00:12:06,199
One study suggests

239
00:12:06,199 --> 00:12:10,024
that hardcore horror fans
require more extreme stimulation

240
00:12:10,024 --> 00:12:11,802
than do less avid fans,

241
00:12:11,802 --> 00:12:13,430
which means that the hardcore fans

242
00:12:13,430 --> 00:12:18,083
build up some resistance
to fear-provoking stimuli, with exposure.

243
00:12:18,573 --> 00:12:22,452
Other research suggests
that by exposing ourselves to horror,

244
00:12:22,452 --> 00:12:26,864
we build a sense of mastery,
which may be transferred to our own lives.

245
00:12:26,864 --> 00:12:30,913
In this way, horror can help us find
and even expand our limits

246
00:12:30,913 --> 00:12:34,122
for how much negative
stimulation we can handle.

247
00:12:34,542 --> 00:12:36,579
I'm not sure I'd be standing here today

248
00:12:36,579 --> 00:12:39,247
if I hadn't forced myself
to watch all those horror films

249
00:12:39,247 --> 00:12:40,984
in the name of science.

250
00:12:40,984 --> 00:12:44,113
Sure, my heart is hammering
and my palms are a little sweaty,

251
00:12:44,113 --> 00:12:47,452
but you guys are a lot less scary
than Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

252
00:12:47,452 --> 00:12:48,912
(Laughter)

253
00:12:48,912 --> 00:12:54,006
So horror can help us
calibrate the fear system,

254
00:12:54,006 --> 00:12:57,311
and horror can help us
refine our coping skills.

255
00:12:57,311 --> 00:13:00,053
That's why so many of us
are drawn to the genre

256
00:13:00,053 --> 00:13:02,765
even if we don't like
to watch horror films alone.

257
00:13:03,555 --> 00:13:07,331
The next time you are terrified
of a novel, a film, a video game,

258
00:13:07,331 --> 00:13:08,719
or in a haunt,

259
00:13:08,719 --> 00:13:10,572
just remember that you are, in fact,

260
00:13:10,572 --> 00:13:15,760
tapping into and calibrating
an ancient biological defense system.

261
00:13:16,330 --> 00:13:20,411
Never mind the fear
and the screams and the nightmares -

262
00:13:20,411 --> 00:13:22,904
who's up for a horror film tonight?

263
00:13:22,904 --> 00:13:23,959
Thank you.

264
00:13:23,959 --> 00:13:25,667
(Applause)