Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Clasen, Mathias
• Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, Jens
• Johnson, John A
• Salmon, Catherine

Titel

Horror, Personality, and Threat Simulation: A Survey on the Psychology of Scary Media

Ist Teil von

• Evolutionary behavioral sciences, 2020-07, Vol.14 (3), p.213-230

Ort / Verlag

Washington: Educational Publishing Foundation

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

PsycARTICLES

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Horror entertainment is a thriving and paradoxical industry. Who are the consumers of horror, and why do they seek out frightening media? We provide support for the threat simulation theory of horror, according to which horror media provides a form of benign masochism that offers negative emotional stimulation through simulation of threat scenarios. Through an online survey of genre use and preference as well as personality traits and paranormal beliefs (n = 1,070), we find that sensation seeking and the fifth of the Big Five factors, intellect/imagination, predict liking of horror and frequency of use. Gender, educational level, and age are also correlated with horror liking and frequency of use (males show higher liking and more frequent use, whereas liking and use frequency are negatively correlated with educational level and age). People with stronger beliefs in the paranormal tend to seek out horror media with supernatural content, whereas those with weaker beliefs in the paranormal gravitate toward horror media with natural content, suggesting that people seek out horror media with threatening stimuli that they perceive to be plausible. While frightening media may be initially aversive, people high in sensation seeking and intellect/imagination, in particular, like intellectual stimulation and challenge and expect not just negative but also positive emotions from horror consumption. They brave the initially aversive response to simulate threats and so enter a positive feedback loop by which they attain adaptive mastery through coping with virtual simulated danger. Public Significance Statement The horror genre is paradoxically popular: Why do people willingly seek out negative emotional stimulation from such entertainment? One way to get a handle on this question is to ask what type of person seeks out horror media, so we conduct a survey of personality traits, paranormal beliefs, and horror preference and usage patterns. Our findings support the hypothesis that horror can function as adaptive threat simulation, which may be particularly attractive to individuals who desire emotional and intellectual stimulation.