The Psychology of Horror

A common question asked upon the young generation is: "What do you like about horror films, what makes you so intrigued by them?" In order to find out the answer to this specific question, my group and I looked into different psychologists, reading through their professional facts and knowledge based ideas. According to a 2004 paper in the 'Journal of Media Psychology' by Dr. Glenn Walters, the three primary factors that make horror films alluring are: tension (generated by suspense, mystery, terror, shock, and gore), relevance (that may relate to personal relevance, cultural meaningfulness, the fear of death, etc.), and (somewhat paradoxically given the second factor) unrealism. Dr. Johnston reported that: “The four viewing motivations are found to be related to viewers’ cognitive and affective responses to horror films, as well as viewers’ tendency to identify with either the killers or victims in these films." More specifically she reported gruesome watchers typically had low empathy, high sensation seeking, and (among males only) a strong identification with the killer. Secondly, thrill watchers typically had both high empathy and sensation seeking, identified themselves more with the victims, and liked the suspense of the film. Furthermore, independent watchers typically had a high empathy for the victim along with a high positive effect for overcoming fear, and lastly, problem watchers typically had high empathy for the victim but were characterised by negative effect (particularly a sense of helplessness).

Dr Jeffrey Goldstein added on to say a well known quote within the psychology genre:

"People go to horror films because they want to be frightened or they wouldn't do it twice. You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That's certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects. They want those effects…[Horror films must] provide a just resolution in the end. The bad guy gets it. Even though they choose to watch these things, the images are still disturbing for many people. But people have the ability to pay attention as much or as little as they care to in order to control what effect it has on them, emotionally and otherwise."

How the average human brain reacts to horror films: