Why we love scary movies and violent video games

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-12-18 11:01

Australia; International; VIC

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We may enjoy the thrills of horror films and violent video games because they counterintuitively make us feel less anxious and stressed rather than more owing to the brain's curious nature, according to international experts, including an Australian. They say fictional scares are a source of learning and feelings of being in control for our brains' predictive processing framework, which uses sensory stimulation to make predictions about our future sensory states. That means there's a ‘sweet spot’ of fear and fun in horror entertainment, but this doesn't mean that our engagement with frightening media can never take a more morbid turn, with curiosity driven by expectations of horrible outcomes, rather than by curiosity alone, they say.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Surfing Uncertainty with Screams: Predictive Processing, Error Dynamics and Horror Films

Why are we so fascinated with horror films and violent video games? The authors suggest that the predictive processing framework, whereby the brain uses sensory input to make predictions about future sensory states, may answer this question. The authors suggest that horror films can act as a powerful source of learning and control, and attenuate feelings of anxiety and stress rather than increase them.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live at some point after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Monash University, Aarhus University, Denmark

Funder: B.W. is supported by The Leverhulme Trust as part of the be.AI Doctoral Scholarship Programme in biomimetic embodied AI. Mark Miller is funded by a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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