Why We Love to Scare Ourselves

Oct. 31, 2010— -- Dracula, Frankenstein, witches, ghosts and goblins are all around us at this time of year -- and Hollywood keeps them at our beck and call for the rest of the year as well. Scary movies allow us to experience the tonic of a good fright whenever we want one, but why do people seek out that experience?

What in your brain separates the pleasurable adrenaline high of a horror film from the traumatizing experience of someone breaking into your house?

The obvious answer is that you know that what's happening on the screen isn't real. According to Andreas Keil, a professor of psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, that knowledge starts in the visual cortex, an area at the back of the brain that processes what we see and helps link those images to personal and cultural events that put them in a context.

Like the other cortical areas of the brain (the auditory cortex, the sensory cortex, the motor cortex, and the cerebral cortex), it thinks. You see a dark spot on the floor, notice that the dark spot has projections, realize that these projections are legs, and your brain says "Spider!"

But is it a house spider, a black widow spider, or a plastic spider? You have to control your fear to find out.

"If you are afraid of spiders, the visual cortex will alert the cerebral cortex, and it will tell your amygdala and insula, the parts of the brain that process emotion, that the threat is real," said Keil. "When it perceives a threat, the cerebral cortex produces the energizing neurotransmitters glutamate, dopamine, and serotonin to amplify your responses and get you out of danger, and you run, without checking to see what kind of spider you are dealing with."

People who control their fear respond more slowly, giving the cerebral cortex time to take in and process more information.

If the cerebral cortex realizes that the spider shape is actually a harmless plastic spider, it tells the amygdala and insula that the threat isn't real and the calming neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is produced. The brain and body stand down, and everything goes back to normal.