Guest Blog Authored By: Sarah Lechago, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA
Dr. Sarah Lechago is an Associate Professor in the Behavior Analysis master’s program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). She directs the UHCL Verbal Behavior Clinic (VBC) and co-directs the UHCL Connecting the Dots (CTD) program. Her research interests include verbal behavior, student and caregiver training, motivating operations, and diversity, inclusion, and equity. She founded and heads a research lab called Behavior Analysts for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (BADIE). She approaches instruction, research, and clinical supervision from a scientific and equity-minded perspective. She loves horror movies and Halloween!
For the month of Halloween (October) in which I write this blog, I’m discussing horror movies. I was raised on a steady diet of creature features, psychological thrillers, slashers, and more in a home with family members who loved watching these films in equal measure (including one sibling who grew up to be a horror film maker). So, I rarely watched these movies alone. I watched them with family and friends and learned to talk about horror in very specific ways. And this talk, this verbal behavior around horror, altered the value of many horror-related stimuli, establishing horror movies, or the stimulus changes produced by watching horror movies, as reinforcers for me.
It turns out that I am not alone in my love of horror movies. About 48% of the U.S. population shared that they liked watching horror movies (CBS Newspoll, 2021) and even more people stream and watch horror on TV in Mexico compared to the U.S. (Statistica, October 2023-October 2024). Edwin Pagan, who runs LatinHorror.com, says many Latinx people may enjoy watching horror because they grew up listening and learning to enjoy many stories that involve the supernatural and gothic. This is similar to my own experience wherein horror was paired with family time, and often involved engaging in specific (positive) verbal behavior around the ghostly.
The question I get asked sometimes, usually from those who do not like horror is, exactly what is so enticing about this spooky genre? There are many theories to help explain this phenomenon, but I’ll discuss just a few from a verbal behavior (Skinner, 1957) analysis perspective.
Image retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/chart/31146/share-of-respondents-who-watch-or-stream-%2522horror%2522/
Stimulating Fun
One speculation is that horror movies present stimuli that elicit a variety of unconditioned and conditioned reflex responses in the form of physical arousal and emotional responses (Stollznow, 2024; Yang & Zhang, 2021). This can include increases in the production of adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine, which in turn produce euphoric feelings. While some of the stimuli presented in horror movies may elicit unconditioned reflex responses (e.g., a gory physical attack elicits an increased heartrate); other stimuli are repeatedly paired with these unconditioned stimuli resulting in conditioned stimuli that also elicit arousal (e.g., the viewpoint of someone walking through the woods at night toward a campsite elicits an increased heartrate).
Sometimes the way we tact (what we say about) a particular stimulus alters its value, which can also elicit physical arousal (a reflex response), and evoke a particular class of responses (operant or voluntary behaviors). A tact is a response (label) influenced by non-verbal stimuli. Tacts serve to produce more effective responding on the part of a listener. For example, watching a movie where a character’s expression is odd and declaring, “Nope! Look at her eyes! Something is wrong with her!” elicits physical arousal, and evokes escape behavior in the form of covering our eyes or looking away. Stollznow speculates that part of the fun of horror movies is first eliciting reflexes in the form of an increased heartrate, fear, and tension; and then offering a resolution that results in a decreased heartrate and positive emotions. However, often times responding to something as a resolution requires tacting it as such. For example, if a character viciously kills the creature at the end of the movie, the sight of this might be just as gory as when the creature killed a character earlier in the movie. However, if we tact this attack as a character exacting justice by killing the creature, our response to the gory attack may be different. We function as our own listeners so when we tact the attack of a creature as a form of justice, we alter the value of this gory scene resulting in different conditioned reflex relations (i.e., joy instead of fear), and evocation of different operant behavior (i.e., cheering vs. covering our eyes).
Controlling Stimulus Events
A second speculation is that horror movies allow us to simulate threat and danger in a controlled environment, and this combination may result in an experience that we tact as fun (Clasen et al., 2020). Controlling exposure to the horror movie represents a safety frame of control over our environment, which results in psychological distance from the horror (Yang & Zhang, 2021). Talking about “controlling” behavior from a verbal behavior perspective is interesting and going in depth on this topic is beyond the scope of this blog. However, I will briefly touch on it here. We can typically escape a horror movie completely by turning it off, pausing it, leaving the theater, or looking away. We can also escape aspects of it by simply lowering the volume. Movie watchers typically have an extensive history in which turning off, pausing, leaving, or lowering volumes result in escape from horror (aversive) stimuli, increasing the probability of these behaviors under similar conditions. When we think about “controlling” behavior, we are also likely referring to the fact that people can describe this contingency (their behavior and the reinforcing outcome of escape). It is important to note that they are not engaging in these escape behaviors because they can tact the contingency, however. Movie watchers engage in these escape behaviors based on successful consequences for doing so in the past, under similar circumstances. The reinforcer for these behaviors is not “control.” However, verbally fluent people may be able to tact the contingencies of their own behavior (i.e., explain why they are doing what they are doing). This tact may increase the likelihood of engaging in similar (escape) behaviors under similar environmental conditions (experiencing horror stimuli in situations that are manipulable to the viewer/person) in the future. Escape behaviors produce removal of the horrific stimuli, at least temporarily, which can allow for a variety of important coping-responses, like decreases in reflex responses (decreases in arousal) and verbal behavior statements that alter the value of the film (“none of this is real or actually happening to me”), which in turn can influence continuation of the movie and more positive emotional responses. Some researchers refer to the behavior of tacting the movie as fake as a safety frame of detachment resulting in this psychological distancing (Yang & Zhang, 2021).
Social and Cultural Fears
A third interpretation that I will highlight is that horror films from different countries reflect the social and cultural fears of those countries (Stollznow, 2024). These films can depict, albeit sometimes in a supernatural manner, events or conditions that have been tacted as scary or threatening by a cultural group (e.g., the fear of violence from intruders reflected in The Strangers (2008). The cinematic interpretation of these societal fears or concerns may offer viewers an opportunity to engage in problem solving around these topics, which in turn can reduce stress. Problem solving is defined as behavior evoked by a problem in which an individual manipulates, supplements, and generates discriminative stimuli (SD) to which they subsequently respond (Donahoe & Palmer, 2004; Skinner 1957, 1968). Perhaps viewing these films offers depictions of events that help the viewer generate stimuli to which they can respond to in order to solve real life problems. A study by Scrivner (2021) demonstrated that people who watched pandemic-related horror were more prepared for and resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watching horror movies with others can have positive social (cohesive) effects by allowing us to engage verbally about the movie in a variety of ways. For example, we can share reinforcers associated with watching the movie or increase the reinforcing value of the movie by highlighting (tacting) interesting themes for others. In turn, others can engage in continued verbal behavior about the movie (e.g., intraverbals in the form of contributing their own ideas in response to these tacted themes, and manding for information about our ideas on these themes). We can engage in verbal behavior that increases the safety for others (“Don’t worry! You’re safe with me!”), and even increasing our own reinforcing value to others.
If nothing else, I hope this brief analysis will help alter the value of horror movies for some and inspire others to try horror with a renewed perspective. After all, it’s fake, spooky fun!
References
Clasen, M., Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, J., & Johnson, J. A. (2020). Horror, personality, and threat simulation: A survey on the psychology of scary media. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 14(3), 213. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000152
Donahoe, J.W., & Palmer, D.C. (2004). Learning and Complex Behavior. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Scrivner, C., Johnson, J.A., Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, J., Clasen, M. (2021). Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110397
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Skinner B.F. (1968). The Technology of Teaching. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York.
Stollznow, K. (2024). The science of fear in film. Psychology Today. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/speaking-in-tongues/202410/the-science-of-fear-in-film)
Yang, H., & Zhang, K. (2021). The psychology behind why we love (or hate) horror. Psychology, The Harvard Business Review. (https://hbr.org/2021/10/the-psychology-behind-why-we-love-or-hate-horror)