Why do people like being scared?

Generating fear is a multi-billion dollar industry, with many in Moose Jaw sure to be looking for a fright tonight. From TV shows and movies to novels and haunted houses, people are willing to pay money to be scared.

Bill Arnal is one of the minds behind the course “Ghosts, Monsters and Demons” at the University of Regina. A religious studies professor at the school, he explained it all comes down to a simple explanation.

“Why do we do that, is it just nastiness?” asked Arnal. “No. We like giving ourselves a thrill, we like feeling different. We get bored if we feel the same way all the time.”

Arnal pointed to studies that have shown the emotion of fear alters our brain state, which is something humans across the globe enjoy doing.

“We, in a variety of ways, including terror but including terror but including a whole bunch of other things, again, music, dancing, reading novels, taking psychoactive substances, human beings seem to persistently like to alter their brain chemistry in an artificial way.”

Ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night seem to help make those changes, which in turn has people looking to do it again, and again. 

This has spurred the industry behind thrill-seeking. Television shows such as The Walking Dead, The Terror and NOS4A2 are hits. Movies like Paranormal Activity, Nightmare on Elm Street and IT are box office successes. 

Arnal pointed to another reason why people seek thrills or activities which would have them shriek in terror - No matter where they are on the cultural divide when people get scared, they come together.

“If there were zombies pounding on the door, we would all feel like a single threatened unity; we would have this kind of thrill of social bonding, and you can actually see that when people go to horror movies or when they go through haunted houses,” explained Arnal.