G. Neil Martin, a psychologist at Regentâs University London, combed through decades of findings across psychology, psychotherapy, communication, clinical work, and media studies to produce what he calls âthe first synthesis of the empirical literature on the psychology of horror film.â
The review published in Frontiers in Psychology maps what draws people to horror and how horror changes behavior and feeling.
“Why do we watch and like horror films?” he asks. Despite a century of horror film-making and entertainment, little research has examined the human motivation to watch fictional horror and how horror film influences individualsâ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional responses.”
“With interest and appreciation in horror increasing, the scope for undertaking research into horror film has never been more timely. There is still much to discover and still much to understand. Horror, said Adorno in another context, was beyond the scope of psychology. The research would suggest that the weight of evidence is on the side of one of horrorâs innovators. Without psychology, Dario Argento once said, the horror film does not exist.”
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Cool premise, I wish I could read it. I’ve always hated horror, but I had recently started wondering what draws people to it.
Problem is, academic psychology works off of so many insane unscientific assumptions that I cannot trust any research it claims to do. If the field of psychology cannot identify non-science and separate itself from psychiatry, then it is not a science.
If ANY study uses the DSM to identify sample groups, collect data, or uses any disorder labels to attempt to quantify “mental health”, then it is wholly unscientific, its conclusions are worthless, and it should not be allowed to be posted on this site, or anywhere. Are we going to ever actually reject the DSM or just talk about it forever while never actually doing anything?
Yeah, take the “science” off the tagline too, too much of the “research” posted here is psych shill bullshit.
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