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Why some people love scary movies

Some people with anxiety find horror movies helpful. The films can focus their minds in a controlled environment that they can overcome.
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Some people with anxiety find horror movies helpful. The films can focus their minds in a controlled environment that they can overcome.

In human history, fear kept us safe. It helped us flee from predators. Anxiety made us wary of potential dangers — like venturing into a known lion-infested area.

But what happens when these feelings get out of hand in humans today? And why do some of us crave that feeling from scary movies or haunted houses?

For answers, we talk to Arash Javanbakht, a psychiatrist from Wayne State University. He likes studying fear so much he wrote a whole book called Afraid. In this episode, Javanbakht gets into the differences between fear and anxiety, many of the reasons people feel afraid and why things like scary movies could even be therapeutic.

Want to know more about the science behind what keeps you up at night? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we might cover it on a future episode!

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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Tyler Jones. Simon-Laslo Janssen was the audio engineer.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Regina G. Barber
Regina G. Barber is Short Wave's Scientist in Residence. She contributes original reporting on STEM and guest hosts the show.
Rachel Carlson
Rachel Carlson (she/her) is a production assistant at Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. She gets to do a bit of everything: researching, sourcing, writing, fact-checking and cutting episodes.
Rebecca Ramirez (she/her) is the founding producer of NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. It's a meditation in how to be a Swiss Army Knife, in that it involves a little of everything — background research, finding and booking sources, interviewing guests, writing, cutting the tape, editing, scoring ... you get the idea.