AARHUS UNIVERSITY
14 JUNE 2019 AARHUS UNIVERSITY & UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSONSCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIA
SURVEY RESULTS AND THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
MTurk survey (N=1072) of American users and
nonusers of horror mediaThe survey covered
• Personal details (e.g., sex, age, number of children, level of education)
• Paranormal Belief Scale (Tobacyk, 2004; revised according to Lindeman and Svedholm,
2012)
• Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (Hoyle et al., 2002)
• Big 5 (50-item IPIP)
• Items on participants’ horror media uses (e.g., “How often do you use horror media?”)
• Items on participants’ horror media preferences (e.g., “Do you prefer natural or supernatural
horror?”)
• Items on participants’ horror media experiences (e.g., “Do you prefer horror media that scare
you mildly/moderately/highly?”)
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
Clasen, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen & Johnson, 2018
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
PERSONALITY OF HORROR FANS• Not so surprising:
• Tend to score relatively high on sensation-seeking• Perhaps more surprising:
• Intellect/Imagination is the most predictive
personality variable of horror liking• Correlates r=.19 with enjoyment and .21 with frequency of horror use
• Tiny (but statistically significant) negative correlation between age and
enjoyment of horror media and frequency of horror use (same with
education)
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
SOME OTHER COOL FINDINGS
Most respondents (81.3%) claimed to use horror media several
times a year or more often
Strong correlation (r=.79, p<.0001) between liking and frequency of use
Most respondents (78.9%) prefer horror that is moderately-to-highly
frightening
No support for catharsis hypothesis
• 52.2% report increase in state anxiety post-horror; 5.6% report decrease
Belief in the paranormal/supernatural positively correlated with
preference for supernatural over natural/psychological horror
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
SUPPORT FOR BENIGN MASOCHISM
“These paradoxical pleasures include consuming hot chili peppers, strong cheese,
and dry wine, and partaking in extreme experiences like saunas, skydiving, car
racing, and rock climbing. All of them are adult tastes, in which a neophyte must
overcome a first reaction of pain, disgust, or fear on the way to becoming a
connoisseur. And all are acquired by controlling one’s exposure to the stressor in
gradually increasing doses. What they have in common is a coupling of high
potential gains (nutrition, medicinal benefits, speed, knowledge of new
environments) with high potential dangers (poisoning, exposure, accidents). The
pleasure in acquiring one of these tastes is the pleasure of pushing the outside of
the envelope: of probing, in calibrated steps, how high, hot, strong, fast, or far one
can go without bringing on disaster. The ultimate advantage is to open up
beneficial regions in the space of local experiences that are closed off by default
by innate fears and cautions” (Pinker, 2011, p. 555).
SCSMI 2019 MATHIAS CLASEN, JENS KJELDGAARD-CHRISTIANSEN & JOHN A. JOHNSON
14 JUNE 2019 PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF HORROR MEDIAAARHUS UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
ADAPTIVE THREAT SIMULATION
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