Maybe you’re sprawled on the sofa, clutching the armrest in terror — yet still unable to tear your eyes away — as Freddy Kruger slices his way across the screen in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Or perhaps you’re tiptoeing through a haunted house at a local amusement park, bubbling with nervous anticipation as you walk around every corner. You might even be sitting in the dark of a movie theater, gasping and shrieking at Hollywood’s latest horror flick in unison with dozens of strangers.
Most people tend to avoid things that scare or frighten them. So why, exactly, do some of us shell out money to watch movies and visit attractions designed to trigger feelings of terror?
“What has historically been called the ‘paradox of horror’ is that, on the one hand, people feel a negative, aversive emotion — fear — and on the other hand, a positive, enjoyable emotion at the same time,” says Marc Malmdorf Andersen, co-director of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark.
What Is the Allure of Fear?
Researchers like Andersen have sought to unravel that paradox through rigorous scientific study of what they call recreational fear, or any mixed emotional experience that blends fear and enjoyment.
