Professor: Psychology explains why some of us love to be scared

It’s Halloween, and everyone’s entitled to a good scare. For some, it’s harmless fun — kids in scary masks enjoying spooky decorations as they move house to house trick-or-treating. Others are thrilled sitting home and watching some of the scariest movies ever made.

We’re all pretty aware of our fears. So why do some of us choose to scare our own socks off?

The answer lies in psychology.

“There’s some research on this, some of it related to horror movies and why we like it,” said Dr. Robin Valeri, chair of the psychology department at St. Bonaventure University.

But they’re all just hypotheses, she noted.

“Especially in horror movies where it’s made-up horror, some researchers think it helps us cope with real-world problems,” said Valeri, who is in her 21st year as an SBU psych professor. “They allow us to examine and release our fears.”

Other researchers suggest it’s the fear of death that guides us through marathons of gory movie franchises like Halloween or Friday the 13th.

“It allows us — if you think about it in a safe environment in the theater — to consider those things,” Valeri said. “Our own mortality kind of inspires us. It’s like, if I’ve thought about my own death, does it inspire me to go out and make the best use of my time, to critically examine my life?

“That’s not just from horror films. You can look at sad ones where people die and viewers think they need to go out and take advantage of every possible minute that they have.”

You may also like it for imagining yourself as the victim — or the villain.

“It kind of invites us to indulge in deviant antisocial behavior by proxy,” she said. “You might want to pretend you are the bad guy, whether it’s the vampire or Freddy Krueger or whoever it is.”

Or you could examine it philosophically, she said.

Are we all born with an innate bent toward evil, as Freud would say? Is it nature versus nurture? What actually was the driving force behind Jason Voorhees’ cinematic killing spree? What made the little girl Regan from The Exorcist vulnerable to demonic possession?

“Where does evil come from?” Valeri said. “Is it something that’s within us or is it something that happens to us or something we learn? In psychology, there are different theories. Are we born blank slates, where something would have to happen to us to make us evil? You could look at it like, if I was an abused child, would I therefore be driven to do these evil things.

“Philosophically, each of us has good and evil within. Nothing good or bad has to happen for us to learn those things.”

Primal instinct may be the culprit, she said.

“There’s some research that says way back in primitive times when we were cavemen and cavewomen, you got to prove how tough you are and mark your territory by defending yourself or killing,” Valeri said. “We really don’t have that opportunity in today’s society, but we can live it through movies.”

The answer could also lie in societal norms, especially as they pertaining to adolescents and young adults. Typically, young men like to sit through a gory flick as a rite of passage showing toughness, Valeri said.

“It’s like, ‘I was tough enough to prove how tough I am by sitting through this movie,’” she added.

And for some young women? Perhaps there’s some sort of societal urge, Valeri hypothesized, to assume the role of the weak and protected.

“Or maybe it’s just an excuse to embrace,” she added. “If I’m the girl and I scream, then you put your arms around me.”

(Contact reporter Kelsey Boudin at kboudin@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @KelseyMBoudin)

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