We humans have always been fascinated by the things that frighten us. But why is that? Why do we love horror movies and books? Why do we line up for hours to be scared in haunted houses? And what’s with the fascination in true crime?
In the newest episode of the Weird Historian podcast, Marc Hartzman speaks with psychologist Coltan Scrivner, author of Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away (Penguin Books), about our strange attraction to the macabre, what it reveals about human nature, and much more.
Below is an excerpt from our conversation about haunted houses. Listen to the full podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
CS: In all the years that I’ve studied haunted houses or studied people at haunted houses—and I’ve done it in the US and in various places from Austin, TX to Detroit, MI, but I’ve also done it internationally in Denmark—and in all those places, I’ve never once seen someone come to a haunted attraction by themselves.
And it’s not because they’re too scared.
It’s because we enjoy doing these playful simulations with people we know. And oftentimes it’s a romantic partner.
I think one thing we get out of these high intensity, multi-sensory scary experiences that you maybe can’t get—at least not as powerfully—from a from a movie and you certainly can’t get from a book, because that’s an sort of more of an individual experience, is that you can see how the people in your life react to these situations.
How does this person who maybe I’m going to marry this year, and I might spend the next 50 years with, respond when they’re truly afraid? How do they respond around me? Do they act protective? Do they act afraid and do they run away and leave me behind?
These can be really good cues to how good of a cooperation partner they are, how good of a friend they are, how good of an ally they might be.
And so you get these sort of hard-to-fake responses from people you know really well and when they’re in situations that you’ve probably never seen them in.
WH: There’s also that notion of being able to approach danger and get close to danger knowing that at the end of the day, it’s a safe experience, right?
CS: Right. And haunted houses offer that in a way that helps you sort of tiptoe that line of real versus not real. And sometimes people who are a bit more on the adrenaline junkie side of things or who are sensation seekers, they need a stronger experience in order to get the same thrill or in order to get the same interest level that someone who maybe is more introverted might get from a book.
Check out the podcast for the full interview, and buy Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away (Penguin Books) here or wherever else you buy books.
