Hey, this is Floral Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today on the show.

Here's Johnny.

That was from The Shining, of course, and it makes you wonder, why do we want to watch a murderous

psychopath try to ax down a bathroom door so he could kill his family? What draws us to horror?

And why are some people more thrill-seeking or morbidly curious than others?

Here to flesh out some answers are two experts who happen to fall on opposite polls of the horror fandom genre.

Dr. Ken Carter is horrified of horror. He's also a psychology professor at Emory University and author of the book Buzz

Inside the Minds of Thrill Seekers, Daredevles, and Adrenaline Junkies. And we have horrorfile,

Dr. Colton Scribner, a behavioral scientist at Arizona State University, and author of the new

book, morbidly curious, a scientist explains why we can't look away. Ken Colton, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you very much. Great to be here. It seems like horror is having a moment right now.

Am I imagining that? And if it is having a moment, is there any reason why?

Well, I don't think you're imagining it.

If you look at the box office share of horror over the past 30 years, and it was around 17%,

which is about two to three times its typical share and is the highest that it's been in recorded history,

at least since we've been collecting comprehensive records.

Wow.

Yeah. And so if it's highest at the box office, it's probably also more common on streaming

platforms. And if it's more common on streaming platforms and in the box office,

you're probably also seeing it in big box stores and other places as well.

Do you have a hypothesis for why that is so? I do. The short answer, and I actually only came

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