Competitive Balance
Why Do People Enjoy Getting Scared? Everyone knows what it is like to feel fear inside them. We feel a pounding heartbeat, faster breathing, and butterflies in our stomach. In reality there are two types of fear. One is real fear, the fear we are not so comfortable with, like being diagnosed with a deadly disease, losing a loved one, or getting in a deadly accident. The other fear is a fear that a certain number of us get an enjoyment out of it, like watching a horror movie, riding a roller coaster, or walking through a Halloween-themed haunted house. This fear brings enjoyment to people’s lives and people like to be scared in this way. What people may not know is why certain others get so much enjoyment out of being scared in this way. There are many different theories to this phenomenon, but some reasons seem more logical then others. Whether it is the adrenaline rush we feel or the fact that we know we are not in true danger, people love being scared. The normal reaction we, has humans, get from responding to a threat is what sometimes motivates us to like being scared. When we get scared, our bodies trigger, what psychology calls, a “fight or flight” response. We start to feel our muscles tightening, our breathing increasing, and quick reaction to the threat. We sometimes refer to this increase tension in our body as an adrenaline rush and we all tend to be drawn and love this feeling (Burr). At the moment when the adrenaline rush is over and there is no more fear in our bodies, we feel satisfied and victorious that we made it through that roller coaster ride or that we sat through that one horror movie. It is a natural rush that makes one person feel so powerful.
These individuals walking out of a movie theater get a great satisfaction being able to say they conquered their fears, but they knew that during the movie they were not at any risk. This is another theory why people like being scared. Remy Melina, an auditor of Life Science
These individuals walking out of a movie theater get a great satisfaction being able to say they conquered their fears, but they knew that during the movie they were not at any risk. This is another theory why people like being scared. Remy Melina, an auditor of Life Science