Is it silly to be scared by a horror movie, since it’s just a made-up story? It seems like the same kind of effect—there must be some level of cognition that isn’t affected by the “no, it’s just a made-up story” filter and simply reacts to what’s going through your head and senses.
(For example, consider this classic “test of faith in science”: hold a pendulum’s bob up to your nose, release it, then let it swing back at you. Because energy is conserved, the bob won’t break your nose on the return trip—but good luck overriding the reflex to move your face away.)
Is it silly to be scared by a horror movie, since it’s just a made-up story?
No way! Take out the ‘horror’ and horror movies lose rather a lot of their appeal.
It seems like the same kind of effect—there must be some level of cognition that isn’t affected by the “no, it’s just a made-up story” filter and simply reacts to what’s going through your head and senses.
This is something we can be glad of. I know my ‘flinch’ reaction begins to operate hundreds of milliseconds before my higher level thought can wind up from standby, process the risk and kick the motor skills into gear. By the time they are operating the flinch has ducked my head away and brought up my hands to protect my face and strike out. With the basics in place, my higher brain functions can process the situation while I’ve started get the fine motor skills into play just as soon as it can.
Sure, given the probability of needing that sort of defensive reaction is far diminished in current circumstances. But if we didn’t have this kind of gut level reaction I guess we wouldn’t bother with scary movies either!
Is it silly to be scared by a horror movie, since it’s just a made-up story? It seems like the same kind of effect—there must be some level of cognition that isn’t affected by the “no, it’s just a made-up story” filter and simply reacts to what’s going through your head and senses.
(For example, consider this classic “test of faith in science”: hold a pendulum’s bob up to your nose, release it, then let it swing back at you. Because energy is conserved, the bob won’t break your nose on the return trip—but good luck overriding the reflex to move your face away.)
No way! Take out the ‘horror’ and horror movies lose rather a lot of their appeal.
This is something we can be glad of. I know my ‘flinch’ reaction begins to operate hundreds of milliseconds before my higher level thought can wind up from standby, process the risk and kick the motor skills into gear. By the time they are operating the flinch has ducked my head away and brought up my hands to protect my face and strike out. With the basics in place, my higher brain functions can process the situation while I’ve started get the fine motor skills into play just as soon as it can.
Sure, given the probability of needing that sort of defensive reaction is far diminished in current circumstances. But if we didn’t have this kind of gut level reaction I guess we wouldn’t bother with scary movies either!