The science of fear and scary movies : Short Wave : NPR

Some people with anxiety find horror movies helpful. The films can focus their minds in a controlled environment that they can overcome.

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Some people with anxiety find horror movies helpful. The films can focus their minds in a controlled environment that they can overcome.

Crazytang/Getty Images

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.

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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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Tyler Jones. Simon-Laslo Janssen was the audio engineer.

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