Exploring the Science of Spookiness at the Recreational Fear Lab

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why do so many of us love a good scare? Whether it’s horror movies, haunted houses or creepy podcasts, there’s something thrilling about feeling spooked—especially around Halloween. In this episode, host Rachel Feltman dives into our fascination with fear and morbid curiosity with Coltan Scrivner, a behavioral scientist at the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark. They explore the evolutionary and psychological reasons behind why we’re drawn to the dark and eerie and why a dose of fear can be so much fun. Recommended reading: The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Movies and Haunted Houses Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This Podcast is sponsored in part by PNAS Science Sessions, a production of the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
0:08.0	The Science Sessions Podcast features brief but insightful conversations with leading researchers.
0:14.0	Learn how the hearts of constricting pythons grow and shrink after a meal
0:19.0	and how they might serve as a model for human heart disease.
0:22.0	Don't miss out. Subscribe to science sessions. serve as a model for human heart disease.
0:22.6	Don't miss out.
0:23.6	Subscribe to science sessions on iTunes,
0:26.0	Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For Scientific American Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feldman.
0:37.0	As most of you listening to this probably know,'m pretty into podcasts but my first
0:44.6	experiences with the format or at least the ones that really hooked me weren't the
0:49.3	science shows you might expect I first got into audio by listening to horror podcasts. I'd creep
0:56.0	myself out listening to the black tapes and the Magnus Archives feeling so
1:00.3	viscerally spooked that sometimes I actually had trouble sleeping.
1:04.4	Even if you're not a horror fan yourself, you can't deny that humans on the whole seem to really like getting
1:10.4	scared. That's especially apparent this time of year, what with all the haunted
1:14.3	houses and spooky hay rides on offer for Halloween. But what is it about fear that draws us in?
1:21.7	My guest today is an expert on precisely that.
1:25.0	Colton Scrivener is a behavioral scientist
1:27.4	at the Recreational Fear Lab at Orhous University
1:30.2	in Denmark and the Psychology Department
1:32.4	at Arizona State University.
1:34.0	He investigates what he calls the evolutionary and psychological underpinnings of morbid curiosity
	...

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