越恐怖，越心动？恐怖背后的科学原理

Haunted houses, horror movies and creepy costumes are hallmarks of Halloween, and for most folks, those fun but terrifying activities come and go with the season. But some people will continue to chase after similar heart-pumping, fear-inducing thrills year-round.

鬼屋、恐怖片和令人毛骨悚然的服装是万圣节的标志，对大多数人来说，那些有趣但可怕的活动随季节而来又随之而去。但有些人会在全年中继续追求类似的心跳加速、引发恐惧的刺激。

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Those types of thrill-seeking people who thrive in scary situations have a specific sensation-seeking personality trait, said Kenneth Carter, a clinical psychologist and professor at Oxford College of Emory University in Georgia. This trait determines how much we enjoy activities like watching horror movies, climbing the steepest sides of mountains, driving race cars around harrowing, hairpin. Here are some people called sensation seekers.

“那些在恐怖情况下茁壮成长的寻求刺激的人具有特殊的感觉寻求人格特征。”临床心理学家、乔治亚州埃默里大学牛津学院教授肯尼思·卡特说道，“这种特质决定了我们有多喜欢看恐怖电影，爬陡峭山崖，在恐怖U形车道边缘飙车等活动。这些人被称为感觉寻求者。”

We're all wired to look for novel things in our environment, a leftover from our ancient days of scanning for danger.

我们都天生具备在环境中寻找新奇事物的能力，这从远古人类对危险的嗅探能力发展而来。

"There's an innate survival system in humans," said Joanne Cantor, a retired University of Wisconsin professor of communications. "It's sort of like driving by a car wreck -- you don't want to see it, but you can't help looking at it.

威斯康星大学退休的通信学教授乔安-坎特说：“人类有一个与生俱来的生存系统。"这有点像开车经过一个车祸现场 -- 你不想看到它，但你却忍不住不看。”

 "Then there are others who like to play with those emotions and take risks," said Cantor, who has spent 40 years researching the emotional reactions of adults and children to mass media, including fright.

坎特说：“然后还有一些人喜欢冒险，喜欢挑起这种感觉。”他花了40年时间研究成人和儿童对大众媒体的情感反应，包括惊吓。

"In psychology we refer to that as a sensation-seeking personality," Sparks explained. "It will be those people who skydive and bungee jump who may also seek threatening entertainment.

"They may have a very low arousal set point, so they're constantly craving experiences that elevate that arousal and flood the system with adrenaline," he said.

“在心理学中，我们把这称为感觉寻求人格，”斯帕克解释说，“那些喜欢跳伞和蹦极的人，也会追求玩命的娱乐方式。”

他说：“他们最初的兴奋基准点可能很低，所以他们渴望通过冒险行为，不断提升这种兴奋基准点，并享受全身澎湃着肾上腺素的感觉。”

The idea of a sensation-seeking trait was originally developed in the 1970s by Martin Zuckerman, an American psychologist. The trait is defined by four components, according to the National Library of Medicine:

•Boredom susceptibility: The need for external stimuli.

•Disinhibition: The willingness to be spontaneous.

•Experience-seeking: The desire to be exposed to new things.

•Thrill- and adventure-seeking: The drive to participate in exciting and risky physical activities.

感觉寻求特质的概念最初是由美国心理学家马丁·祖克曼在20世纪70年代提出的。根据美国国家医学图书馆的资料，这种特质由四个部分组成：

• 厌倦敏感性：对外部刺激的需求。

• 去意志性：自发的意愿。

• 体验寻求：接触新事物的愿望。

• 刺激和冒险寻求：参与刺激和危险活动的冲动。

By testing, psychologists found that People who tend to seek and even crave chaotic and frightening experiences have lower levels of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol and higher levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in their body. So, when put into scary situations, such as a dark, creepy haunted house, thrill-seekers experience more pleasure and less stress.

通过测试，心理学家发现，那些倾向于寻求甚至渴望混乱和恐惧经历的人 ，他体内的肾上腺素和皮质醇激素水平较低，而神经递质多巴胺水平较高。所以，当置身于可怕的环境中，比如一个黑暗、令人毛骨悚然的鬼屋，寻求刺激的人会体验到更多的快乐和更少的压力。

Sensation-seeking is a trait that develops in early childhood, as soon as age 3, according to a 2019 study published in the journal BMC Pediatrics. That study reported that sensation-seeking in children ages 3 to 6 was generally less than in older children, indicating that the trait likely becomes stronger with time until ages 16 to 19. Sensation-seeking typically peaks during the later teenage years, Carter said, and may explain why many scary stories and slasher horror movies are marketed toward people in that age group.

2019年发表在《BMC儿科学》(BMC Pediatrics)杂志上的一项研究表明，感觉寻求是儿童早期(最早在3岁)形成的一种特征。该研究报告称，3至6岁儿童的感觉寻求通常比大一点的儿童要少，这表明这种特征可能会随着时间的推移变得更强，直到16至19岁。卡特说，寻求刺激的情绪通常在青少年后期达到顶峰，这或许可以解释为什么许多恐怖故事和恐怖电影都是针对这个年龄段的人进行营销的。

"By definition, fear is a negative emotion," Sparks said. "When we're scared of something, we are experiencing our well-being under threat, and people do not enjoy that. What they are enjoying are things associated with that experience that typically happen after the scare is over."

“从定义上讲，恐惧是一种消极情绪，”斯帕克斯说，“当我们害怕某事时，我们自己的幸福正受到威胁，而人们并不喜欢那样。他们所享受的是那些通常在恐惧结束后才会发生的经历。”

One reason you may be drawn to scary experiences is the satisfaction of conquering a threat. Take roller coasters for example.

 "You might not enjoy thinking about the car falling off and hurtling you down to the ground," Sparks said. "But when you finish the ride and you can look back up (at) the height of the coaster and say to your friends, 'I made it, I did that,' that's enjoyable."

你可能会被可怕的经历所吸引的一个原因是征服威胁所产生的的满足感。

以过山车为例。斯帕克斯说:“一想到过山车会掉下来，把你摔到地上，你可能就不高兴了。但是当你完成过山车的时候，你可以回头看看过山车的高度，对你的朋友们说，‘我成功了，我做到了’，这很享受。”

"We call that an excitation transfereffect," he explained. "If you come out of a scary film or the haunted house and you're laughing and talking with friends, that pleasant feeling you're having can be intensified by the arousal still lingering from your fear."

“我们把这种现象称为激发转移效应，”他解释说。“如果你刚刚看完一部恐怖电影或从鬼屋中走出来后，恐惧带来的刺激可能会持续加剧随后和朋友一起大笑和交谈产生的愉悦感。”

OK, that explains a good bit about why some people love to be scared. But why am I so adverse to the feeling of being frightened?

好的，这很好地解释了为什么有些人喜欢害怕。但为什么我对被惊吓的感觉如此反感？

"First of all, there's a large gender difference in who loves this stuff and who finds it appalling," Cantor said. "Guys tend to like it more than girls." That's likely due to the different ways boys and girls were treated as they grew up, she added.

“首先，享受恐惧感和认为它让人毛骨悚然之间存在很大的性别差异，”坎托说。“男孩比女孩更喜欢恐惧感。” 她补充说，这可能是因为男孩和女孩在成长过程中受到的对待方式不同。

"Girls are more likely to admit they are scared, whereas boys are taught to say 'I'm okay,' " she said. "Boys may not be as willing to admit they are as frightened as they really feel."

“女孩更愿意承认他们的害怕，然而男孩从小被教导要说：‘我不怕’”，她说。“男孩往往不愿意承认他们实际上感受到的害怕程度。”

Studies have shown that in adult sensation-seekers, men are drawn more toward action and adventure, while women are drawn more toward new experiences, Carter said.

卡特说：“研究表明，在成人感觉寻求特质中，男性更喜欢行动和冒险，而女性更喜欢新体验。”

In fact, in her research, she has found that almost everyone -- including boys -- can tell about an experience with a frightening film that haunted them long after it was over.

"About 90% have something to say," Cantor said. "It's very, very common to have at least one scary thing that really stayed with you."

事实上，在她的研究中，她发现几乎每个人——包括男孩——都能讲述自己关于一部恐怖电影的经历，且在这部电影结束后的很长一段时间，这段经历也会一直困扰着他们。

“大约90%的人有相同经历，”坎托说。“至少有一件让你觉得可怕的东西真的会伴随着你，这是非常非常普遍的。”

If you were young when that scary momenthappened, Cantor said, it's more likely to stay with you and shape your futurepreferences.

坎托说：“如果在小时候那可怕的一刻发生了，很有可能它会伴随着你的一生并对你的未来造成影响。”

"Children at a very young age thinkthat what's on the screen is actually there," she said. "If a viciousbeast is coming toward them on screen, a young child is going to bescared."

“当孩子尚处年幼时会认为屏幕中放映的事情是真实发生的，”她说：“如果一头猛兽正在屏幕中朝着他们走近，年幼的孩子们会感到害怕。”

If a child is very empathic and relates tothe characters on the screen, then that child is going to be more frightened,and the fear may last much longer.

如果一个孩子有强烈的同理心并会对屏幕的角色产生共情的话，他就有可能会更加害怕，并且他的恐惧会更强烈、更长久。

"You just might feel the fear moreintensely and that stays with you, even for your whole life," Cantor said."Our research found that one really tough experience could last literallyforever."

坎托说：“你可能会更强烈地感受到恐惧，并且那种恐惧可能甚至会伴随你的一生。我们的研究发现一次糟糕的经历确实会永久地延续下去。”

Cantor's early research, for example,showed that people who saw the movie "Jaws" before the age of 13continued to have a recurring fear, not just of sharks, but of lakes and poolsor any water in which they could not see their feet.

坎托的早期研究发现，在13岁以前观看电影《大白鲨》的孩子，不仅会对鲨鱼，而且会对任何不能看见他们脚的湖泊，泳池或任何水域一直有一种恐惧感。

Can you imagine watching a scary movie and then falling in love with the first attractive person you see as you leave the movie theater? Probably not. But classic social psychology experiments have shown that sometimes people do misattribute feelings of fear and anxiety to sexual attraction. So, this is probably why horror movies are often a popular choice for date night.

你能想象看完一场恐怖电影后，离开电影院时会爱上你看到的第一个有魅力的人吗?可能不会。但是，经典的社会心理学实验表明，人们有时确实会把恐惧和焦虑的感觉错误地归因于性吸引。所以，这可能就是为什么恐怖电影经常是约会之夜的热门选择。

Psychoanalysts say that affection to horror movies is actually considered a very healthy thing for it's a safe way to satisfy the "shadow side" of human nature, as part of a psychological defense called "sublimation"—where we find socially acceptable outlets for sides of ourselves that would be taboo if expressed in a raw, unfiltered manner.

精神分析学家说爱看恐怖片实际上被认为是一种非常健康的事情，因为这是一个安全的方式来满足人性”阴暗的一面“，作为心里防御的一部分，被称为“升华”——在看恐怖片的过程中，我们为自身的阴暗面找到了一种社会接受的渠道来发泄，但如果这些面以一种原始的、未经过滤的方式表达出来就会被视为禁忌。

重点词汇

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