Here’s why getting scared gets you off — according to science

[luvspeas]

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/heres-why-getting-scared-gets-you-off-according-to-science/comments/#disqus



From a survival-based perspective, we’re not supposed to find pleasure in feeling scared. Yet many of us spend good time and money to court the heebie-jeebies. We genuinely enjoy the experience. And, according to research on fear, overlapping behavioral and neurological factors may explain why so many of us prefer to Netflix-and-chill with The Walking Dead than Veep.

Some scientists believe that non-life-threatening fear — e.g., watching The Shining alone in a cabin in the woods — is a close relative of excitement. Fear, they say, is enjoyable in a safe environment because it prompts a flight-or-fight chemical rush, without the actual jeopardy. And our brains, being so damn clever, can actually distinguish between fun-scary and holy-shit-I’m-going-to-die scary. Another notion says we court fear because we love when it’s over; we know a euphoric relief is coming when the frightening is finished.

But yet another theory challenges an assumption made by the first two: that negative and positive emotions are mutually exclusive. In a 2007 study, consumer science researchers argued that the brain can simultaneously venture into both safe and dark waters. In other words, we can be perfectly happy being scared (or being sad, for that matter).