By: Kristen Anderson

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There was a big boom of interest in the movie Contagion when this whole thing started.

It was released almost 10 years ago, but during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, it was one of the most popular films on Netflix. Contagion follows a group of medical experts as they try to halt the progress of a deadly infection, and depending on your perspective, you were either all-in on watching it given the state of the world, or you gave it a hard pass for the same reason. And scientists can make conclusions from that perspective regarding your overall resilience during COVID-19.

Not just pandemic movies, but people who enjoy horror movies, zombie movies, apocalyptic movies, and more—referred to collectively as “frightening fiction”—were the focus of a study from the University of Chicago on how an interest in these genres may help fans cope during this real-life crisis. Among other things, they found that horror fans experienced less emotional distress during the pandemic compared to people who favored other genres.

It’s not super surprising if you think about it. When you watch a horror movie, you’re subjecting yourself to fear in a safe way, allowing your emotions and nervous system to run slightly amok while ultimately knowing somewhere in your brain that you’re safe. There’s research to indicate that this serves a purpose that goes beyond entertainment and that having a safe outlet to experience emotions that would otherwise be negative in a real-world context can be, kind of paradoxically, a calming release valve for people who experience general anxiety in daily life.

The same kinds of mechanisms seem to apply to the ramped-up anxiety associated with the pandemic. The University of Chicago study was conducted in April 2020, toward the beginning of the surge in cases in the United States, when fear was running rampant and toilet paper was scarce. As part of the study, 322 test subjects were asked about their movie preferences (horror, comedy, romance, etc.) and then given a series of statements to rank their agreement with on a scale from 1 - 7. Statements like:

Compared to how I usually feel, I have been more nervous and anxious during the pandemic.

I have found some aspects of the pandemic to be interesting.

I haven’t been sleeping well during the pandemic.

I believe in my ability to get through these difficult times.

Based on the data, the researchers concluded that “[their] findings support the idea that fiction can be a useful simulation of...generally fearful scenarios in the case of horror films,” and that “experience with these simulations may benefit the user through...general skills associated with emotion regulation.”

Basically, they found that horror fans have been on an emotional test run for tense real-life situations because of the stress we regularly put ourselves through by watching scary movies. Not only that, but we benefit from our learned ability to feel fear, anticipation, and other sensations associated with horror, and feel safe at the same time. We don’t necessarily associate certain negative emotions with true fear the way those who don’t favor horror movies might.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that horror fans are impervious to the psychological effects of the COVID-19 phenomenon; just that we may experience less psychological distress than non-horror viewers. But there are some further distinctions to be made. People with morbid curiosity, defined in the study to mean “people who seek out dangerous information” were found to have more positive resilience during the pandemic. The distinction between the horror fans’ “reduced psychological distress” and the morbidly curious and their subsequent positive resilience is that the morbidly curious might, rather than just not being as stressed, actually find some positive aspects and opportunity within their experience of the pandemic. They may find it all more objectively interesting than others. The study notes that these are the people who are most likely to seek out Contagion at this time.

But let’s not forget the preppers! The researched viewers who are most into zombie outbreak/apocalyptic movies showed an increased level of preparedness and less uncertainty about what to do in the face of crisis. This is similar to the emotional rollercoaster horror fans have accidentally gotten used to: it’s a matter of exposure creating both objectivity and the learning experience of viewing other people, even fictional ones, going through high stakes situations.

Of course, there can be overlap between these categories.

As a horror fan with morbid curiosity myself, some parts of the study’s findings resonated with me. I’ve attributed my degree of acceptance of COVID-19 to some pretty emotionally muscle-building tragedies in my life in recent years, but maybe having seen Halloween 8,000 times and researching the dark corners of humanity on a regular basis have as much to do with it as my lived experiences.

One of the things I was most struck by in the University of Chicago study was a single reference to “horror movie use,” like it’s a tool, a strategy rather than just entertainment, and how true that can be sometimes. For sure we sometimes just watch horror movies to have some fun, but they can also get you out of your own head, get you out of your own way, stop the hamster wheel for a little while, and clear the slate. They can act as a “pattern interrupt,” which is a behavioral psychological tool for changing habitual thoughts that aren’t benefiting you. With the stresses of today’s world and the 24-hour news cycle, few tools could be more useful.