A love of horror movies is associated with an underlying dimension of entertainment preferences, dubbed "the dark factor".Those with dark tastes value intensity, edginess and rebellion. Their personalities lean towards risk-taking, antagonism, imagination, and tough-mindedness.

The 'dark factor'

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Some derive enjoyment from negative emotional states, as when enjoying a "good cry", for instance.A <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15506878jobem4402_8#.VjQXS7crJhE">study</a> found that people who liked sad films enjoyed a scene relative to how much sadness it elicited. The stronger the sadness, the higher the enjoyment.

The pleasure paradox

Halloween seems to bring out excesses in costumed children and adults.Several studies revealed that costumed children who were anonymous — by wearing masks for instance — were more likely to take extra candies. In adults, costumed Halloween celebrators tend to have higher blood alcohol readings than people in plain clothes.

Trick or treat

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Updated October 31, 2015 15:41:34
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-31/pumpkin-jack-o-lanterns-carved-as-the-skeletons/6902040"> <img src="https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/6901118-3x2-340x227.jpg"></a>
Halloween is upon us. The spirits of the departed return to haunt the living and demons roam the land.
Predictably, scary movies flood television screens and packs of costumed, sugar-crazed children wander the streets. 
In many ways, trick or treating and watching horror movies can be puzzling activities. What possesses people to help their children become ghouls, monsters and supernatural villains for one enchanted evening?
Why do we seek out experiences that we know will expose us to dread, disgust and terror?
But not everyone is drawn to these experiences. As a rule, humans seek pleasure and avoid pain. But some seem to welcome emotional pain and even luxuriate in it.
<h2>Those who love horror have the 'dark factor'</h2>
Researchers have explored what influences enjoyment of horror movies in the hope of understanding the paradox that lies at its heart.
A love of horror movies is associated with an underlying dimension of entertainment preferences, dubbed "the dark factor".
People who find horror particularly appealing tend to enjoy heavy metal or punk music, cult films and erotica. They tend to be young and male. 
Those with dark tastes value intensity, edginess and rebellion. Their personalities lean towards risk-taking, antagonism, imagination and tough-mindedness.
Some of these attributes reflect the personality trait of sensation-seeking. High-sensation-seekers crave intense, novel, and risky experiences and are especially fond of frightening movies.
One study used fMRI to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19585588">scan brains of people while they watched a horror film</a>. Those who scored high on a sensation-seeking measure showed activation in brain regions associated with arousal and visual processing during threatening scenes. 
This activation was stronger than when they were exposed to neutral scenes.
Intriguingly, high-sensation-seekers' neural response to scary scenes was not higher than their low-sensation-seeker peers. Instead, high-sensation-seekers reacted less intensely to neutral scenes.
By implication, sensation-seekers are bored and under-stimulated by the everyday. They show a magnified response to thrilling departures from normality. In essence, they enjoy horror because it is arousing.
<h2>The pleasure paradox</h2>
Empathy is also related to our differing fondness for frightening movies. More empathic people are likely to put themselves in the shoes of horrors movies' sliced and mangled victims and to find the vicarious experience unpleasant.
One study showed people who scored higher on an empathy test made more effort to distract themselves during horror scenes and found them less appealing. They also showed a greater drop in skin temperature, indicating unpleasant arousal.
<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-31/the-hockey-mask-from-the-horror-movies-series/6901860"> <img src="https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/298158-3x2-340x227.jpg"></a>
Arguably, having less empathy enables people to interpret frightening scenes as "just a movie" and detach their emotional response. 
Of course, there is a world of difference between coming face-to-face with a knife-wielding man in a hockey mask and seeing him on a screen. 
That difference may just be smaller for more empathic people.
Another factor that could influence the enjoyment of fright is "meta-emotion". This concept refers to how people feel and think about their emotions. 
Some derive enjoyment from negative emotional states, as when enjoying a "good cry", for instance.
<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15506878jobem4402_8#.VjQXS7crJhE">A study in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media</a> found that people who liked sad films enjoyed a scene relative to how much sadness it elicited. The stronger the sadness, the higher the enjoyment.
The idea of meta-emotion resolves the hedonic paradox (the pursuit of negative experience for pleasure) by recognising that we can put a positive frame around a negative experience, and vice versa.
In one study, German researchers found people who generally avoided strong emotions felt negatively about their emotional response to a horror film. Those drawn to strong emotions enjoyed the movie experience more.
Enjoying horror films may be like enjoying chilli pepper or skydiving. The apparent benign masochism is driven by a desire for intense experiences, even when they are painful, unpleasant and contrary to our animal instincts.
<h2>Trick or treat! How masked costumes makes kids more greedy</h2>
Trick or treating has also interested psychologists. 
During this inversion of social norms, children dress as powerful, wicked or monstrous beings, and taboos around death and evil are relaxed. 
Researchers have used this ritualised suspension of normal expectations as a creative way to study rule-breaking.
Several studies have examined whether being costumed or masked affected a child's tendency to take more treats than allowed. Such effects might reveal the dangers of deindividuation (where individuals lose social restraints in groups).
Sure enough, costumed children who were anonymous - by wearing masks for instance - were more likely to take extra candies.
Halloween also seems to bring out excesses in adults. Costumed Halloween celebrators tend to have higher blood alcohol readings than people in plain clothes. 
There are also substantially increased levels of vandalism and property destruction.
One form of crime that does not spike at Halloween though, is sexual abuse of children by strangers, despite some panic in the United States. 
But children on the day are at substantially increased risk of pedestrian motor vehicle accidents.
So look left, look right, and be careful on the roads. And don't forget to look out for other dangers lurking under the bed, in the closet, beneath the stairs, behind the curtains, inside the vacant house on the corner.
Nick Haslam is a professor in psychology at the University of Melbourne. He is a social psychologist whose interests include prejudice, psychiatric classification and refugee mental health. <a href="https://theconversation.com/trick-or-treat-the-psychology-of-fright-and-halloween-horrors-49800?utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=The+Weekend+Conversation+-+3723&amp;utm_content=The+Weekend+Conversation+-+3723+CID_ffeb98d8b4b1ebac7b3a8dca2501db1d&amp;utm_source=campaign_monitor&amp;utm_term=Trick%20or%20treat%20The%20psychology%20of%20fright%20and%20Halloween%20horrors">This article was first published on The Conversation.</a> First posted October 31, 2015 14:35:06
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Updated October 31, 2015 15:41:34 Halloween is upon us. The spirits of the departed return to haunt the living and demons roam the land. Predictably, scary movies flood television screens and packs of costumed, sugar-crazed children wander the streets. In many ways, trick or treating and watching horror movies can be puzzling activities.

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Trick or treat: The psychology of Halloween and horror movies

The 'dark factor'

The pleasure paradox

Trick or treat

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Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them

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Trick or treat: The psychology of Halloween and horror movies

The 'dark factor'

The pleasure paradox

Trick or treat

IDEAS ABOUT

MORE LIKE THIS

Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them

Why Do We Like Horror Movies?

Why Do We Like Watching Scary Films?

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!

Bite-sized knowledge
to upgrade
your career