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Playing With Fear: A Field Study in Recreational Horror
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- Playing With Fear: A Field Study in Recreational Horror
Final published version, 845 KB, PDF document
DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620972116
Final published version
- Marc Malmdorf Andersen
- Uffe Schjoedt
- Henry Price, Imperial College London ,
- Fernando E. Rosas, Imperial College London ,
- Coltan Scrivner
- Mathias Clasen
Haunted attractions are illustrative examples of recreational fear in which people voluntarily seek out frightening experiences in pursuit of enjoyment. We present findings from a field study at a haunted-house attraction where visitors between the ages of 12 and 57 years (N = 110) were equipped with heart rate monitors, video-recorded at peak scare points during the attraction, and asked to report on their experience. Our results show that enjoyment has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with fear across repeated self-reported measures. Moreover, results from physiological data demonstrate that the experience of being frightened is a linear function of large-scale heart rate fluctuations, whereas there is an inverted-U-shaped relationship between participant enjoyment and small-scale heart rate fluctuations. These results suggest that enjoyment is related to forms of arousal dynamics that are “just right.” These findings shed light on how fear and enjoyment can coexist in recreational horror.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Psychological Science |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1497-1510 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISSN | 0956-7976 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2020 |
- arousal, enjoyment, fear, heart rate, horror, open data, open materials, play
Research areas
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Activities
Horror, Victorian Gothic & Dystopia
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Playing with Fear: Empirical Investigations in a Haunted House
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Frygteligt fjernsyn for dig: Om børn, rekreativ frygt og skræmmende medier
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Leg med frygt: Den rekreative rædsels psykologiske og pædagogiske anvendelighed
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Gevinst på begge sider af et skrækkeligt samarbejde
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De døde kroppes hemmeligheder
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Børns leg med frygt: Om børn, rekreativ frygt og skræmmende medier
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Haunted House Research: Results from Six Years of Field Studies
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Playing with Fear: Empirical Research on Recreational Horror
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Gys & Gru i Nord
Activity: Consultancy types › Consultancy
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
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Activity: Talk or presentation types › Lecture and oral contribution
Projects
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