The lab’s main research project in the period 2020-2023 is “When Fear is Fun: An Empirical Investigation of Recreational Fear,” which is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. We are currently interested in the following research questions:
We approach these research questions from different angles, using a range of empirical methods including surveys, experimental lab designs, and data collection in naturalistic settings (such as commercial haunted houses). See, for example, our Psychological Science article "Playing with Fear: A Field Study in Recreational Horror" (2020). You can also learn more about our work in a special episode of the podcast StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson called "The Science of Scary" and in an episode of the Alteryx podcast called "Getting Scared for Science with Spooky Phenomena." Also, you can learn more about our work with recreational fear and children in a blogpost by lab member Marc Malmdorf Andersen called "Scaring Children - Done Correctly - Can Be An Important Route to Learning." Finally, the short BBC Reel documentary "What Lies Beneath Our Attraction to Fear?" features lab director Mathias Clasen talking about the lab's work.
We are also in 2022 hosting a one-year InnoExplorer project called "Affective Player Experience of Fear (APEX of Fear): Enhancing User Experience of Horror through Affective Computing." The project is about harnessing the power of virtual reality, machine learning, and psychophysiological measures for fear and enjoyment to create the horror experience of the future. You can read more about the project here.
The aim of our research is to shed light on a paradoxical, pervasive, and peculiarly understudied phenomenon. Hopefully, we will in time know much more about why people like to play with fear. It may turn out that such behavior has positive benefits in terms of bonding and learning effects.
