Not far off is the popular all over the world autumn festival of autumn, on the eve of which horror or thrillers will be broadcast on the screens of cinemas and TVs. These genres have many admirers. What is it about them that attracts people so much?
For our country, the culture of celebrating Halloween is considered relatively new. But more and more often, on the last day of October, all kinds of parties, excursions to mystical places, scary quests, trips to films or horror performances are organized. Despite the fact that the emotions of fear can hardly be called positive, a large number of people want to experience them. How can you explain this strange behavior? There are many theories and hypotheses on this score, here are a few of them:
The role of biochemistry
According to some scientists, the degree of desire to experience fear may depend on the level of dopamine in the human body. This organ, produced primarily in the adrenal glands, is responsible for feelings of satisfaction or pleasure. It is produced in large quantities when consumed with delicious food, during intimacy, massage and other pleasant activities. During stressful situations, an increased level of anxiety, this hormone helps maintain a person's composure. Scientists claim that people who adore horror movies have a lack of dopamine in their bodies. Those who, on the contrary, dislike horror and thrillers, the level of the hormone is normal or slightly off scale.
Development round
No matter how paradoxical it may seem, fear is an important emotion in the development of mankind. Thanks to her, people were more careful and acted carefully so as not to harm themselves and live longer. Some psychologists associate this fact with the popularity of the horror genre in films and the desire of many people to deliberately experience the thrill. Such addictions allow you to "train" the sense of self-preservation. Observing the actions of the characters in the film, a person involuntarily imagines himself in their place and tries to think with the characters, finding a way out of the situation and at the same time gaining valuable experience for himself.
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Anticipation of the end
One of the common theories for explaining people's love of fear is based on anticipation of the end. That is, a person likes not so much to watch terrible events as to enjoy a happy ending to a story or the realization that he (unlike the heroes of a thriller) is safe. This often helps the person to become more aware of how happy and calm his life is.
Desire for distraction
Watching any feature film allows us to escape from the daily hustle and bustle. Paintings with a tense plot and incredible stories that are difficult to imagine in the present are much more captivating. Thus, the person quickly forgets about the surrounding reality, plunging into the events taking place on the screen. So, according to one of the next theories, real stress and negative emotions are superimposed on those acquired while watching a movie. And minus by minus, as you know, is a plus.
Social closeness
Most often, a person goes to horror films in the company of friends or a close partner. Experiencing stress and fear in society is known to bring people closer together. Plus, these emotions are pretty contagious. Even if a person does not look at the screen, but sees only the face of the one who is very afraid, he too will involuntarily feel fear. Similar to this relationship, at the end of the events, the audience will be pleased to jointly feel the relief that the stressful situation is over. The need for social closeness of sensitive members of the weaker sex is often used to their advantage by young people and often include watching a horror movie in their dating program: impressionable girls strive to snuggle closer to the strong shoulder of their companion.
Self-test
Taking yourself on the weak side is another common reason to watch a scary thriller. So a person can test his ability to control emotions: "Will I be scared?", "Will I be able to cope with fear?" This is often a way to test your self-control abilities and boost your self-esteem.
Psychotherapy
Doctors use many methods to combat phobias. One of the types of therapy is exposure therapy, when a person is gradually confronted with his fears so that he learns to control them. According to a number of psychologists, watching horror films on the same subject, people subconsciously try to overcome their specific fears.
But meanwhile, psychologists argue that disliking horror films is just as normal as the desire to watch them. Therefore, you should not laugh or make fun of a person who refuses to visit a haunted house or go to a top-end 3D horror movie. This can aggravate a person's fears and only harm him.