THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BEING SCARED

A pounding heart, tense muscles, an urge to hide behind the sofa – there’s no denying the physical reaction we have to watching horror. We also experience an adrenaline rush – our body’s response to stress or fear – similar to when we are in genuine peril or indulging in extreme sports. But, because we know we’re safe, we (or at least some of us) can enjoy these sensations of danger. In his 2004 paper ‘Understanding the Popular Appeal of Horror Cinema’, Dr Glenn D Walters listed ‘unrealism’ as an essential element of horror. You get thrills without risk, and without the uncomfortable empathy that would make you turn off a news report, where the suffering was real. Roger Clarke, author of A Natural History of

Ghosts (Penguin), thinks ghost stories take us back to our childhood, but also channel a fear of unconsciousness, and sleep: “Medieval men and women slept propped almost in a sitting position, so they would not resemble a corpse. It’s the fear of not waking up, the fear of not knowing that you are dead. It’s the relief of knowing that you are, in fact, alive.”