The Science Of Fear And Horror Movies

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, News, Nature, Daily News, Astronomy

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Creepy crawly season is upon us, Short Wavers! We're welcoming fall with a contemplation of fear and anxiety. In human history, fear kept us safe. It helped us flee from predators. Anxiety made us wary of potential dangers — like venturing into a known lion-infested area. But what happens when these feelings get out of hand in humans today? And why do some of us crave that feeling from scary movies or haunted houses?

For answers, we talk to Arash Javanbakht, a psychiatrist from Wayne State University. He likes studying fear so much he wrote a whole book called Afraid. In this episode, Javanbakht gets into the differences between fear and anxiety, many of the reasons people feel afraid and why things like scary movies could even be therapeutic. (encore)

Want to know more about the science behind what keeps you up at night? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we might cover it on a future episode!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:05.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:09.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
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0:15.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:18.8	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:26.2	You're listening to Shortwave, from NPR.
0:36.6	Hey, short wavers, Regina Barber here, and I'm going to tell you a secret.
0:40.6	I'm scared of pretty much everything.
0:44.2	Heights, the dark, whales, small spaces, plane rides, and I'm definitely not a fan of scary movies.
0:55.8	Some people love to be scared, though.
0:59.5	Like Dr. Arash Javanbach,
1:02.1	a psychiatrist from Wayne State University in Michigan.
1:06.2	I do love scary movies.
1:08.8	Do you really?
1:09.6	Yeah.
1:10.7	What's your favorite scary movie?
1:12.9	There's two of them.
1:14.3	Exorcists that I watched when I was a teenager and hereditary scared me a lot.
1:21.9	He loves talking about fear and anxiety so much.
1:25.0	Not only did he make it part of his job, he wrote a whole book called
1:28.6	Afraid. Throughout the book, he gets into many of the reasons people are afraid, including the
	...

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