"Terror is a passion
which always produces delight
when it does not press too close."
—Edmund Burke
It seems counter-intuitive, but we go out of our way to scare ourselves by watching scary movies, riding roller coasters and jumping off of bridges WITH bungees, all within constraints of course.
Arousal
Dr. Margee Kerr has some insights into this behavior: “Our arousal system is activated and triggers a cascade of 'feel-good' neurotransmitters and hormones like endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and adrenaline that influence our brains and our bodies." Read more in her new book, Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear.
More Books to Explain Our Fear
In The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't -- and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger, the author shows you how you fear the wrong things, then fling yourself into the jaws of danger while rationalizing your irrational behavior.
In Fear Itself: The Origin and Nature of the Powerful Emotion That Shapes Our Lives and Our World, the author defines fear and explains the science of this dark, messy emotion.
In Fear: The History of a Political Idea, we learn how fear is used as a means of political repression.
In No Go the Bogeyman, Marina Warner puts society on the couch and examines the male terror, his origins in mythology and his current manifestations.
Find more suggestions in my Scared: the Science, Psychology and Politics of Fear booklist.
Add a comment to: The Psychology of Fear: Why Do We Love to Scare Ourselves Silly?