If you follow me on Twitter (which you totally should) then you know about my obsession with American Horror Story. I mean, it’s a real obsession, like a listening to Jessica Lange’s cover of Gods and Monsters on my walk to class kind of thing.
Even if you don’t watch the popular FX anthology series, which premiered its fourth installment, Freak Show, in early October, I’m sure you’ve at least heard about or seen pictures of the season’s most gruesome character, Twisty the Clown.
Twisty is nuts, terrifying and brutal, and all it took was that scene with him, the dating teenagers and the giant pair of scissors (you can imagine what came next) for me to start locking my bedroom door before going to sleep.
But what is it that makes Twisty so horrifying? It turns out the fear I experience while watching a scary TV show, much like the fear you may experience from hearing an unexpected loud noise or having four midterms in one week, stems from an evolutionary mechanism for survival.
Fear, in actuality, “is a state of arousal, distress and apprehension about a clear and imminent threat,” Alexander Shackman, a university psychology professor, wrote in an email.
When our body perceives something threatening — a killer clown, for example — nerve cells in our eyes and ears send a message to the brain. This message is first received by the thalamus, which processes the message, and then by the amygdala, which produces neurotransmitters.
Kind of like how a fire alarm tells you to get the hell out of a building, the specific neurotransmitters created when you experience fear alert other parts of the brain, which tell the body to protect itself.
These response areas of the brain are called periaqueductal gray and the hypothalamus. Respectively, the regions are responsible for a person’s physical reaction to a threat, such as whether you stop dead in your tracks or jump out of the way, and the nervous system response to a threat, which controls the fight-or-flight response as well as heart rate and blood pressure.
Additionally, adrenal glands pump out extra cortisol and adrenaline into the blood stream. This chemical increase gives the body a spike in energy and keeps the mind sharp for quick decision-making.
Interestingly enough, experiments have shown our perception of fear is a product of both environment andfamily background. A study conducted by researchers at City University London in the 1990s found that people were more likely to be fearful of something if a close relative was too, and a 1991 study found arachnophobia might have a familial component.
Perhaps even more interesting is that these responses correspond to how much danger our brains think we’re in.
“We’re anxious and vigilant when threat is distant, remote, or ambiguous,” Shackman wrote in the email. “We’re inhibited and freeze when threat is closer and more concrete. As threat grows closer still, we may scream or generate other kinds of ‘back off’ signals, and, if the situation allows, flee.”
Why some people get such a kick out of getting scared is still a mystery.
While there are several experiments and theories that have attempted to answer this question, researchers have yet to reach a concrete reason.
Some think the enjoyment comes from the relief experienced after the fear fades away. Others believe the gratification experienced from conquering fear is what causes people to seek out fear.
Personally, I’d say my enjoyment of fear stems from both of these ideas. While I do find relief after riding a particularly daunting roller coaster or making it through a haunted house, I like (maybe even more so) the ability to say I conquered my fear. These feelings are what keep me coming back for more screams, and for more Twisty.
