ICYMI Does anyone actually like jump scares? - via healthing_ca halloween scarymovies jumpscares JonesyJourn
from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Germany and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands looked at why people seem to be drawn to depictions of negative emotions in art. These scientists hypothesized that because viewers know that the depiction of negative emotions are fake and they ultimately have control over the experience , it is safe to experience emotions that we typically try to avoid in daily life.
The jury is still out on whether being too scared to go pee in the middle of the night is classified as “fun”. Getty Imagesfrom the University of Alabama devised a theory called Excitation Transfer to explain why people like suspense and horror. When a person is frightened or startled, they also experience a physical reaction to these emotions such as an increased heart rate, dilated pupils and a boost in adrenaline.
When the frightening scene ends, or the story comes to a resolution, the emotions of fear and suspense dissipate, but this state of physiological arousal takes a little longer to go away. As the theory goes, this adrenaline rush then carries over and intensifies the positive feelings of satisfaction or relief that occur as a result of the threat going away, leading to an overall positive experience. We laugh, we smile, we shake it off — the fear turns into euphoria.