Happy early Valentines Day, my dear readers. Hopefully, Cupid is kind to you this week with all this love in the air. Keeping with this week's theme of love seemed like a hard thing to do on a haunt related blog, (of course, I could gush about how many actor couples have found love and proposed at Ravenwood, but nah) but I worked some magic and found an interesting topic for you, my pretties.
Have you ever wondered why some people go on dates to haunted houses or watch scary movies? It's not all about holding on to each other and cuddling in the dark. Sure, they are fun activities, but there's actually a bit of psychology behind this. Now, I promise I won't use any massively huge science terms, nor will I show you diagrams and charts. This isn't a Haunt 101 post, but more of a, "Hey, that's a fun fact!" kind of post. Also, it never hurts for an haunter to understand how fear works in the human body.
When a person is scared, many things begin to happen. First, they enter this stage of fight-or-flight. Adrenaline begins to shoot to a portion of the brain, called the amygdala, that controls emotional response as well as memory and the 'reward system' response (basically it helps produce all the natural chemicals in your body that make you feel really good or really bad). On top of this, the person's heart rate beings to increase and their pupils begin to dilate, both responses left over from our ancestors to ensure survival. For an added bonus, the fear response will also cause a rise in body temperature, rapid breathing, sweaty palms, and a prolonged tension of muscles followed by an instant release (this last one can actually send more of the good chemicals rushing through your body in the same sense as getting a high from exercising).
Another thing that is working against someone when all this is happening is the memory processing role that the amygdala plays. When you're alone in the dark and start feeling scared, have you ever wondered why memories of the last time you were scared starts flooding back and just makes you more scared? Yep, blame your amygdala, and blame it for the next time it happens because while reminding you of all the past scary things you've encountered, it will help your brain remember this time as well. This is how the brain learns how to process things based on memory. That's why customers will try to guess where the upcoming scare will be in a haunt. Their fear from the last time imprinted these small details into their memory based on the fear they felt in the past.
People can usually tell what they are feeling at any given time. When I'm at a parade, I'm obviously feeling happy. When I stub my toe on the coffee table, I'm mad as hell. When nobody remembers my birthday, I'm obviously sad. But for some reason, fear is a tricky emotion to establish sometimes because the physical and psychological response of fear also shares the same responses as another emotion: arousal.
Arousal doesn't always mean it has to be sexual (though, I'm sure a few people have their talent boners for one haunt character or another. Hey, Fluffy, how you doing? *wink wink, nod nod*), but simply the mind excites itself and produces all those good endorphins and serotonin chemicals to make you happy. This confusion between fear and arousal (or sometimes the presence of both at the same time) is referred to as misattribution of arousal.
A university once ran a study on this phenomenon, placing two men on two separate bridges. One bridge was new, stable, and safe while the other bridge was old, unstable, and falling apart. As they stood there, women walked across the bridges and interacted with the men resulting in giving them their number. The man on the safe bridge followed up with only a few of the women, finding them average. The man on the scary bridge, on the other hand, followed up with nearly every woman he came in contact with. He claimed that he felt more attracted to them and they seemed more attracted to him, thus he felt his chances with them were more promising. Once the two men were reintroduced to the women in a neutral area, it was found that the man on the scary bridge retracted statements that he was overly attracted to the women. Why was this?
The man on the scary bridge was feeling fear, a rise in heart rate, sweaty palms, dilated pupils, and quickened breath, and when introduced to women, this feeling was mislabeled as attraction, which can also cause rise in heart rate, sweaty palms, dilated pupils, and quickened breath. A person would much rather confuse fear with attraction than face fear. This is your mind's way of protecting you.
Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "Okay, this is all pretty cool, Jaz, but why should I know this? How can I benefit from this?" Well, perhaps the next time you ask someone on a date, you can suggest a more adrenaline fueled activity like a haunted attraction, scary movie, or going ride a scary rollercoaster. Since you know about the misattribution of arousal, you can help guarantee your chances for a second date. (You're welcome for the dating advice.) Also, if you were planning or wanting to create a holiday themed haunt for a one night opening, a Valentines Day haunt might be the answer you're looking for. Sure, Christmas haunts are all the rage, but who could pass up a "My Bloody Valentine" kind of haunt? "Not I", said the little haunter.
I hope you all have a wonderful, spook filled Valentines day with your special ghoul or gal. I know I'll be enjoying my day of solitude by a nice fire while I sip the blood of my enemies and have a rom-com and horror marathon.
Until next time, stay spooky and happy hauntings!
-Jaz☾
Have you ever wondered why some people go on dates to haunted houses or watch scary movies? It's not all about holding on to each other and cuddling in the dark. Sure, they are fun activities, but there's actually a bit of psychology behind this. Now, I promise I won't use any massively huge science terms, nor will I show you diagrams and charts. This isn't a Haunt 101 post, but more of a, "Hey, that's a fun fact!" kind of post. Also, it never hurts for an haunter to understand how fear works in the human body.
When a person is scared, many things begin to happen. First, they enter this stage of fight-or-flight. Adrenaline begins to shoot to a portion of the brain, called the amygdala, that controls emotional response as well as memory and the 'reward system' response (basically it helps produce all the natural chemicals in your body that make you feel really good or really bad). On top of this, the person's heart rate beings to increase and their pupils begin to dilate, both responses left over from our ancestors to ensure survival. For an added bonus, the fear response will also cause a rise in body temperature, rapid breathing, sweaty palms, and a prolonged tension of muscles followed by an instant release (this last one can actually send more of the good chemicals rushing through your body in the same sense as getting a high from exercising).
Another thing that is working against someone when all this is happening is the memory processing role that the amygdala plays. When you're alone in the dark and start feeling scared, have you ever wondered why memories of the last time you were scared starts flooding back and just makes you more scared? Yep, blame your amygdala, and blame it for the next time it happens because while reminding you of all the past scary things you've encountered, it will help your brain remember this time as well. This is how the brain learns how to process things based on memory. That's why customers will try to guess where the upcoming scare will be in a haunt. Their fear from the last time imprinted these small details into their memory based on the fear they felt in the past.
People can usually tell what they are feeling at any given time. When I'm at a parade, I'm obviously feeling happy. When I stub my toe on the coffee table, I'm mad as hell. When nobody remembers my birthday, I'm obviously sad. But for some reason, fear is a tricky emotion to establish sometimes because the physical and psychological response of fear also shares the same responses as another emotion: arousal.
Arousal doesn't always mean it has to be sexual (though, I'm sure a few people have their talent boners for one haunt character or another. Hey, Fluffy, how you doing? *wink wink, nod nod*), but simply the mind excites itself and produces all those good endorphins and serotonin chemicals to make you happy. This confusion between fear and arousal (or sometimes the presence of both at the same time) is referred to as misattribution of arousal.
A university once ran a study on this phenomenon, placing two men on two separate bridges. One bridge was new, stable, and safe while the other bridge was old, unstable, and falling apart. As they stood there, women walked across the bridges and interacted with the men resulting in giving them their number. The man on the safe bridge followed up with only a few of the women, finding them average. The man on the scary bridge, on the other hand, followed up with nearly every woman he came in contact with. He claimed that he felt more attracted to them and they seemed more attracted to him, thus he felt his chances with them were more promising. Once the two men were reintroduced to the women in a neutral area, it was found that the man on the scary bridge retracted statements that he was overly attracted to the women. Why was this?
The man on the scary bridge was feeling fear, a rise in heart rate, sweaty palms, dilated pupils, and quickened breath, and when introduced to women, this feeling was mislabeled as attraction, which can also cause rise in heart rate, sweaty palms, dilated pupils, and quickened breath. A person would much rather confuse fear with attraction than face fear. This is your mind's way of protecting you.
Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "Okay, this is all pretty cool, Jaz, but why should I know this? How can I benefit from this?" Well, perhaps the next time you ask someone on a date, you can suggest a more adrenaline fueled activity like a haunted attraction, scary movie, or going ride a scary rollercoaster. Since you know about the misattribution of arousal, you can help guarantee your chances for a second date. (You're welcome for the dating advice.) Also, if you were planning or wanting to create a holiday themed haunt for a one night opening, a Valentines Day haunt might be the answer you're looking for. Sure, Christmas haunts are all the rage, but who could pass up a "My Bloody Valentine" kind of haunt? "Not I", said the little haunter.
I hope you all have a wonderful, spook filled Valentines day with your special ghoul or gal. I know I'll be enjoying my day of solitude by a nice fire while I sip the blood of my enemies and have a rom-com and horror marathon.
Until next time, stay spooky and happy hauntings!
-Jaz☾
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