Attracted to Fear: The Science Behind the Human Attachment to Fear
Persuasive Essay
Emilia Niu
Even though people may have been frightened for a thousand times, they still can not get rid of the excitement that horror offers them. Like young people attracted to Halloween, there lies science behind people’s fear that can explain this attachment (Ahlstrom 14). Unknown things make the body react. People’s brain help the body start making changes to help prepare us for the unknown” (Brink). Horror movies could be a perfect example. According to James Twitchell, a professor of English at the University of Florida, there is a close relationship between horror movies and physiological reactions. The human attraction to fear stems from the very nature of how the brain functions, the various advantages people gain from experiencing fear, and people’s interpretations of emotions.
People’s brains play an essential role when reacting to fear. First, the brain monitors feelings. The brain acknowledges the feelings a person experiences to distinguish whether the individual is at risk or not. In other words, the science behind this brain’s reaction mainly involves the biology inside the brain. The brain is the center that gives all the orders and it functions and distinguishes the danger causing fear (Gourley). For example, “in some instances, the mind reasons with the body, persuading it neither to fight nor flee but to cope with the danger” (Gourley). When people encounter different events, the brain will first recognize the type of event, judging whether it is dangerous or not, and then recognize what emotional feelings people should arouse. The brain will end up giving orders to respond to the encounters. Second, fear activates the amygdala in people’s brains (“It's our Brains that Scare Us 1). Amygdala is “an almond-shaped mass of gray matter in the brain's temporal lobe” (“It's our Brains that Scare Us 1). When people are experiencing terror, the amygdala is activated. It sees the world as a conspiracy and crisis at all times (although this is sometimes true), and it moves quickly. The prefrontal lobe directs rational, cooperative, and logical thinking. The amygdala signals before the prefrontal lobe, coming into play (“It's our Brains that Scare Us 1). Therefore, scientists often say that humans are animals that feel good about themselves and think that they have free will, but they do not, because individuals often use the brain's speculative ability to find reasons for the amygdala preferences. Individuals will then persuade themselves to follow the preferences. Third, some people like the feelings triggered by the production of adrenaline (Spears). Adrenaline is produced directly from fear, associating the two within the brain. The function of the Adrenaline is to cope with the pressure produced by people’s brains. People always have something short-term that must be dealt with immediately. This is pressure. Stress responses deal with all the pressures humans experience. Individuals often hear someone's child being crushed under a rock or a car. When the child's mother rushes towards the stone or the car, the stone or car is lifted. The huge potential released by the stress response is often breathtaking. It is people’s adrenaline that supports the stress response. When people are suddenly shocked or attacked, they will secrete a large amount of adrenaline, which will make the blood vessels swell and raise the blood pressure (Gourley). As a result, this detailed process of the brain’s functioning in the face of fear produces people’s attachment towards fear.
Related to the way the brain functions, fear also provides people with different types of advantages. First, people obtain good feelings through fear. According to Glenn Sparks, a communications professor at Purdue, “it's not the love of fear that make North Americans spend millions of dollars to see a kid in a hockey mask hunting down all the neighbors, it's all the good feelings that spillover from the fear” (Spears). People want good feelings, and these feelings are produced by fear. Thus, good feelings directly contribute to people’s attachment to fear. Second, people gain pleasure from fear. Horror movies produce the “adrenaline rush” (Spears) and it makes people experience physical pleasure. Third, men think that they should not show their weakness (towards fear) in front of women. It is a “socialized norm” that if “the male who hides his eyes and says ‘Oh, I can't take it’ --that is a very despised reaction, particularly for females” (Spears). Nonetheless, sexual distinguishments of men and women (their gender roles in society) contribute to the explanation of why people like to be scared. It is common that “males are supposed to be strong and unresponsive and females are supposed to be upset and dependent”, however, both sides can show their weakness when watching horror movies (“It's our Brains that Scare Us). They can abandon social stereotypes and please themselves.
Other distinct advantages of experiencing fear involve our natural tendencies toward curiosity and worry. People are born to be curious, even towards scary things. Even though scary things make people scared, they still satisfy people’s curiosity. Some people particularly want to experience new and exciting things (Spears). Additionally, fear distracts people from worries. For example, “you're probably not thinking about your homework that's due next week when you're playing a game of hide-and-seek” (Brink). When people are experiencing fear in the moment, their bodies are not able to think of any other things (Brink). As a result, individuals may use fear to help them escape from the real world for a second.
To better examine people’s attachment to fear, the broader understanding of emotion is essential since fear is one of the most frequently-appearing emotions. Although there are usually five general emotions that commonly exist--which are happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear--according to Paul Ekman, a US psychologist and pioneer in the study of human emotions, people’s body reactions seem different among different emotions (Ahlstrom 14). For example, when a car is coming towards a person, the body will have a fear response, which will stimulate the individual to jump away quickly to avoid danger. When a person dislikes something, an emotional response of rejection urges the individual to turn around and leave. Although each of these various emotions seems unique, considering the body’s reactions, these body-related emotions can generally be recognized into one, for example, “a scary movie might give you goosebumps, but so does sexual arousal” (Ahlstrom 14). People often mistakenly interpret the reason for the production of emotions. Fear could be mistakenly-produced under the influence of the environment. For instance, people often view their emotions as influenced by the weather. The emotional changes brought about by “bad” weather such as rain, snow, and wind are greatly affected by social and cultural factors. People are more likely to be disgusted by the inconvenience caused by the weather. On the contrary, people love the weather which brings pleasure. In different periods and under different circumstances, the same weather will have a very different influence on emotions. This is by no means just an emotional change brought only by physiological changes. Moreover, the emotion that people produce is “self-driven”, which means what people think of one specific situation affects the emotion people produced (Ahlstrom 14). According to Shane O'Mara, the professor of experimental brain research in the school of psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, he used a football match as an experiment. Normally, people thought they have different emotions: the winners will be happy and the losers will be sad. But the true reactions in people’s body is the same: “the heart pumps more blood, there are elevated levels of hormones and you experience this as a state of pleasure or pain depending on which team you support” (Ahlstrom 14). As a result, people’s attachment to horror is influenced by their own thoughts and choices.
The science inside the body explains people’s attachment to fear. People’s brains play an important role in reacting to fear. There are certain chemicals and parts of the brain affecting the production of fear, for instance, adrenaline and amygdala. Also, there are various kinds of advantages of fear: social, individual, physical, and physiological, which all result in pleasure for people. The explanations of the attachment are scientific--specific chemicals control individuals’ brains. Also, the explanations are explained in a social way--gender roles and natural tendencies. However, there might be more possible and probably more surprising reasons to explain this question.
Annotated Bibliography
Ahlstrom, Dick. "Physiology of Fear: Why We Love a Good Scare." Irish Times, 31 Oct 2013, pp. 14. elibrary,
www.explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/1447033296?accountid=338. Accessed 9 Jan. 2020.
This source discusses the danger that motivates the stimulation of people’s emotions. Further, it gives information on the body’s reaction to different emotions. This source considers all emotions in total and examines people’s interpretations of these emotions, precisely the feeling of fear. It will be useful for me to write about people’s emotional experience process in watching monster movies (when they encounter fear).
Brink, Tracy V. "The Spooky Science of FEAR!" Highlights for Children, vol. 73, no. 10, 2018, pp. 32-33. elibrary,
www.explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/2100367648?accountid=338. Accessed 9 Jan. 2020.
This source talks about the science of fear by explaining the research of Dr. Margee Kerr. The main point of the research is that the brain controls the body’s reaction. Not only does this source give information on the cause of the body’s reaction, which are unknown things, but it also discusses the pros and cons of fear. I will be able to address this research in my essay, and it will increase the credibility to persuade the audience.
Gourley, Catherine. "Writing about Science: The Physiology of Fear." Writing, vol. 21, no. 2, 1998, pp. 16-17. elibrary,
www.explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/196499339?accountid=338. Accessed 9 Jan. 2020.
This source discusses the process of the body when people are experiencing fear. It also holds the opinion that the brain controls the body’s reaction. The writer suggests that the brain is the center that gives all the orders and tells the body how to react to fear. This source could strengthen the idea of the brain’s role in the body and give a detailed process when it functions.
“It's our Brains that Scare Us; how Horror Movies Manipulate the Physiology of Fear." Toronto Star, 08 Aug 1999, pp. 1.
elibrary, www.explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/438003290?accountid=338. Accessed 9 Jan. 2020.
This source is scientific because it examines the brain’s role in monitoring the feelings. It gives examples of the relationship between horror movies and physiological feelings. The source suggests that because horror movies can make people have physiological feelings of fear, the science behind this reaction mainly involves the biology inside the brain. I will be able to use this scientific reference to explain the function of the brain when fear is activated.
Spears, Tom. "Horrors? Fright Flicks Scare Up Good Feelings." Times - Colonist, 31 Oct 2004, pp. A1 FRONT.
elibrary,www.explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/347957864?accountid=338. Accessed 9 Jan. 2020.
This source illustrates the good feelings behind fear. Besides the good feelings, more specifically, the source gives four reasons that urge people to watch horror movies. Monster movies are also similar to horror movies because they all create fear for the audience. I will be able to find the similarities of these reasons to talk about the physiological reactions to fear that make the audience attracted to monster movies.