Exploring the Science of Spookiness at the Recreational Fear Lab

Why do so many of us love a good scare? Whether it’s horror movies,
haunted houses or creepy podcasts, there’s something thrilling
about feeling spooked—especially around Halloween. In this episode,
host Rachel Feltman dives into our fascination with fear and morbid
curiosity with Coltan Scrivner, a behavioral scientist at the
Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark. They explore
the evolutionary and psychological reasons behind why we’re drawn
to the dark and eerie and why a dose of fear can be so much fun.
Recommended reading: The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to
Horror Movies and Haunted Houses Email us at
sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or
ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every
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Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by
Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison
Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck
fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
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