Evolutionary survival mechanism
Early in the evolution of life, nature developed the amygdalae as specialized organs in the brain to remember and respond to danger impulses. They become sensitive to sensory cues that have accompanied past painful events. This susceptibility in animals has been carefully tested. During the experiment, the rat's leg was given a painful shock accompanied by a sound.
Later, when the animal heard a similar signal, the brain generated a feeling of fear. Such painful experiences have been seen to develop rapid acquisition (LTP), which later responds instantly to a corresponding audio signal. The amygdalae became more sensitive to such impulses. These organs were early components of the brains of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals as a defense mechanism. When they detected signs of danger, they encouraged the animals to fight, freeze, or run away.
Why do we want to experience fear?
Incredible facts
With Halloween approaching, it's hard to hide from the ghosts, goblins and other creepy creatures that are everywhere. But some people go even further, seeking out horror films and haunted houses that are designed to instill fear in them. What drives people who want to experience something that will make them tremble with fear?
The pleasure probably comes not from the fear itself, as experts say, but from the physical and emotional release that comes after experiencing a scary situation. For some people, the desire to experience fear is one of the manifestations of the need for a dose of adrenaline, which others get through skydiving, from various slides and even from taking drugs. Fear can help people identify themselves or overcome their own psychological monsters.
"Fear is a negative emotion that occurs when a person feels threatened by being exposed to something they don't like," says Glenn Sparks, a personality communication specialist who studies media influences at Purdue University in the state. Indiana. “Throughout my research on this topic, I have not seen any empirical evidence that people actually enjoy experiencing emotions like fear,” he continues. "Instead, I see evidence that people enjoy other things that come with fear."
The desire to experience fear is far from universal. In the research, Sparks noted that only about a third of people said they sought out “scary entertainment.” Another third try to avoid experiencing such emotions altogether, while the remaining part takes the middle ground and says that they can “accept” some fear if it is not too extreme, but only if the experience is generally for them interesting.
Even people who love horror films often “suffer” from the habit of experiencing negative emotions, because frequent feelings of anxiety are stored in the amygdala of the brain and do not go away for a long time, so horror films continue to scare people over and over again for a long period of time.
After watching the movie Jaws, for example, many people refused to swim in the ocean, and after watching Psycho, a large number of people refused to take a shower without looking behind the bathroom curtain. And The Exorcist scared some people so much that they had to be hospitalized to get their mental health back to normal.
And yet, devoted fans of horror and fear return to their favorite emotion again and again. One reason is a phenomenon known as “excitation transfer.” When a person is scared, his body experiences surges in heart rate, breathing rate and muscle tension change, along with other involuntary reactions.
Moreover, such excitement is not necessarily pleasant. But when the extreme feeling of excitement passes, it is replaced by an equally intense feeling of relief,
and these positive feelings are stronger. Pleasure comes from the end of a stressful situation and the triumph of relief.
“People may think back to a horror movie and say to themselves, ‘I felt so good after that.’” They remember exclusively the positive emotions they experienced afterward, and not the feeling of fear. That is, positive emotions of incredible strength are deposited in memory, even if accompanied for some time by negative experiences,” says Sparks.
Horror also includes an element of sex.
In 1986, in one experiment, teenagers of the opposite sex watched scary videos in pairs. Unbeknownst to the other person in the couple, one was tasked with monitoring conformity or deviation from stereotypical gender roles.
In the end, the researchers found that when girls were afraid, boys rated them more attractive than when they lukewarmly discussed how boring the movie was. In addition, girls liked guys more who “acted bravely” and reacted indifferently to what was happening on the screen.
“Horror films are the films that people are most likely to hug when watching.”
" says Stuart Fischcoff, a psychologist and screenwriter who is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Media Psychology. “Boys in this case play role-play, pretending to be a fearless man, and girls, pretending to be a damsel in distress.”
There are other theories about why people seek out situations that frighten them. The fact that we can project our own negative emotions onto the bad guys in scary movies helps us admire the victory over them, and therefore, on a subconscious level, this is a victory over our own negative emotions.
Another reason is that intense experience distances us from our real life, inviting us to look at something unusual that is as difficult to resist as, for example, a sudden car accident on the side of the road. Whatever the reasons, there is nothing wrong with wanting to experience such emotions.
Although some research suggests that scary movies and video games can make people more aggressive and hostile, the vast majority of people will not do “scary things” after accidentally watching a horror movie or visiting a “haunted house.” “I believe that a person needs to follow their instincts because that is the only way they will feel okay. If I don’t like it, I won’t do it, but if it brings me pleasure, then I’ll definitely do it,” he concluded.
Horror
Fear is expressed as anxiety, horror and panic. These levels are determined by the imminence of danger. Anxiety is caused by the expectation of future harm. Fear, horror and panic concern immediate presence. At the highest levels, these feelings overwhelm people, causing them to make irrational choices. While anxiety is the apprehension of an impending threat, horror is an aversive experience, an emotion that lays the foundation for the amygdala to sense the background of painful events. The amygdala remembers the images, sounds, words and situations that accompanied the horror of trauma, ridicule, social rejection, loss of loved ones or career failure. Subsequently, the detection of any associated impulses causes fear.
Emotion like a tsunami
Fear is a heightened feeling that arises from an impending bad event.
It is often associated with constant feelings of anxiety, confusion and worry. Describing this emotion, psychologists compare it to a tsunami that covers everything in its path. Articles on the topic
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At such moments, a person tries desperately to get out of this state, trying:
- run away from the threat;
- hide in a secluded place;
- disappear to get rid of the flow of emotions;
- control your feelings.
In a moment of intense fear, a person feels as if he is being picked up by a certain stream of emotions and carried along with it. But behind all this is the threat of losing something very valuable. For example, a dog can bite, a bird can peck, fire can burn, water can drown. And the loss of a loved one is associated with unbearable melancholy and suffering.
In addition, concern and anxiety are caused by:
- crime;
- rape;
- sexual harassment;
- violence in family;
- political instability.
However, there is fear that can consume a person for many years. It is precisely this condition that is important to fight tirelessly.
Body reaction
When receiving signals, the hypothalamus reflexively reacts to the reproductive, autonomic, endocrine, hormonal, and visceral functions of the body. Breathing, digestion, circulation, brain activity and fluid flows change instantly. Signals from the limbic system dilate the pupils and increase the frequency of brain waves. They cause hair to stand on end, reduce salivation, which causes a dry mouth, cause sweating and decreased skin resistance. The pulses reduce peripheral blood flow and cause the hands to cool, speeding up breathing and dilating the bronchial tubes to allow more air into the lungs. They tighten the abdominal muscles, slow digestion and close the excretory system, and increase acidity in the stomach, causing diarrhea.
The signals travel to the adrenal glands, which produce cortisol, which leads to increased glucose production to provide additional fuel for the muscles and brain to combat potential stress. The signals increase blood pressure, release sugar into the blood and increase blood clotting. The number of red blood cells increases. The impulses tighten the postural muscles, causing the arms and body to tremble. They slow down the immune system. The amygdala initiates a chain of biological events and engulfs the mind in the emotion of fear, even before the conscious mind can assess the situation. In the modern world, such fear signals are not associated with an actual physical threat. They are caused by the instincts of the brain.
