Playing With Fear: A Field Study in Recreational Horror

TY - JOUR

T1 - Playing With Fear

T2 - A Field Study in Recreational Horror

AU - Andersen, Marc Malmdorf

AU - Schjoedt, Uffe

AU - Price, Henry

AU - Rosas, Fernando E.

AU - Scrivner, Coltan

AU - Clasen, Mathias

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - arousal

KW - enjoyment

KW - fear

KW - heart rate

KW - horror

KW - open data

KW - open materials

KW - play

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85094896183&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0956797620972116

DO - 10.1177/0956797620972116

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33137263

AN - SCOPUS:85094896183

SN - 0956-7976

VL - 31

SP - 1497

EP - 1510

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

IS - 12

ER -