Why Some People Love Horror Movies

Vicarious Experiences and Threat Mastery

In our everyday lives, we don't encounter scary situations all that often, but if we do encounter something threatening or dangerous, it attracts our attention.

Horror scholar Mathias Clasen suggests this tendency can be traced back to the constant danger our ancient ancestors experienced in the environments where they lived. For ancient humans, constant vigilance was required in order to avoid becoming the prey of a larger or more deadly animal.