Love Feeling Scared? Here's Why

Every Halloween, people of all ages delight in wearing frightening costumes, wandering through elaborate haunted houses and sitting through marathons of chilling horror flicks. And while many of us are perhaps more inclined to take part in these spooky activities only during the Halloween season, our desire to be scared is not isolated to Oct. 31.

Year round, people all over the country wait on long lines at theme parks to ride roller coasters that flip, flop, spiral and plunge. Others willingly jump out of planes while strapped to parachutes that will probably open. Probably. “Jigsaw,” the eighth film in the popular “Saw” franchise, made $16.3 million at the box office during opening weekend — a success that further illustrates our society's love of things that give us the chills.

So why do we derive pleasure out of something that scares the pants off us? It turns out it’s our survival instincts at play.

“Sensing danger and achieving survival is hardwired in humans,” explains Dr. Mark R. Allen, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, “and the ‘fight or flight’ response occurs automatically in response to threats.” Once this response kicks in, Allen adds, our bodies release a flood of chemicals like adrenaline, norepinephrine and dopamine so that we can protect ourselves.

Once our bodies realize we’re not in any real danger and our nervous systems activate the “rest and digest” response, we are left with those "feel good" chemicals that give us that pleasurable high or rush. (This is why you’ll sometimes find yourself laughing immediately after throwing your popcorn in the air and screaming during a scary movie or feeling invincible after escaping a haunted house.)

However, not everyone gets the same rush when they get frightened. Allen says people’s varied reactions to scary experiences can be partially attributed to how anxious or laid back they usually are. “Some people are less anxious at baseline and may find the 'rush' of dopamine pleasurable,” he explains.

Dr. David Zald, a neuropsychologist at Vanderbilt University, adds that some people’s brains lack “brakes” on their dopamine release and re-uptake system, which increases their level of pleasure following a thrilling experience. “Having a greater amount of dopamine pushes someone to pursue the goal of excitement,” he told The New York Times, “whereas someone who basically has less dopamine is more likely to hold back and say, ‘No, this isn’t worth it to me.’”

Impressively, our bodies are able to differentiate between an actual threat and a simulated one. But again, those who are less anxious will detect the difference more quickly — another reason why they’re better able to enjoy scary experiences. “People with anxiety tend to struggle with this as they have a much lower threshold for perceiving real danger,” says Allen.

He adds that those who tend to be more anxious could actually benefit from some good old-fashioned simulated fear. “Imagining a threat or taking part of a simulated threat like venturing into a haunted house can actually be steps on a fear hierarchy, which is a way for anxious patients in therapy to systematically confront their fears and become desensitized to them.”

So next time you're on the fence about entering that haunted house, give it a go — the scary experience could be good for you!

Photo: Pixabay