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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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know? 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 horror 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
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extreme stimulation than to less avid
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fans which means that the hardcore fans
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build up some resistance to fear
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provoking stimuli with exposure. Other
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research suggests that by exposing
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ourselves to horror we build a sense of
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mastery which may be transferred to our
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own lives. In this way horror can help us
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find and even expand our limits for how
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much negative stimulation we can handle.
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you know I'm not sure I'd be standing
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here today if I hadn't for
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myself to watch all those horror films
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in the name of science. Sure my heart is
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hammering and my palms are a little
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sweaty but you guys are a lot less scary
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than Pennywise the dancing clown.
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So horror can help us calibrate the fear
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system and horror can help us refine our
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coping skills. That's why so many of us
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are drawn to the genre even if we don't
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like to watch horror films alone. The
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next time you are terrified of a novel, a
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film a video game, or in a haunt, just
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remember that you are in fact tapping
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into and calibrating an ancient
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biological defense system. Never mind the
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fear and the screams and the nightmares.
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Who’s up for a horror film tonight? Thank you.
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[Applause]