What's the Recreational Fear Lab, and what are we up to? You can learn about some of our projects and meet several lab members in our new promo video (@TTerkildsen, @Marc_M_Andersen, @MathiasClasen, @MorbidPsych, and @mihaela_taranu):

Thrilled to present a new PhD student in the lab: Aleksandra Cyrek 🥳👻🎃 https://t.co/bwxuYkqH8Y

Recreational fear in childhood, from the gang over at the @RecFearLab and elsewhere:

- but an exciting one. Thanks to our amazing research assistants, fantastic collaborators, and to the brave participants who screamed for science. 👻

These results align wiith prior research showing that shared experiences can amplify both emotional intensity and physiological alignment. Whether this synchrony emerges during shared fear or reflects pre-existing alignment between close individuals remains an open question -

🫀 Participants whose heart rates synchronized more with others in their group reported higher arousal. 🤝 Synchrony was significantly stronger among emotionally close pairs.

Participants also reported: 1) Who they knew in the group. 2) Who they were emotionally close to. Here’s what we found:

... recruiting 347 participants. Groups of 4–5, often a mix of friends and strangers, walked through a high-intensity haunted house while wearing heart rate monitors.

But how does social context shape our experience of fear - emotionally and physiologically? To find out, we conducted a field study in collaboration with our good friends at Denmark’s scariest haunted attraction (DYSTOPIA Entertainment) ...

It’s curious that humans actively seek out fear for fun - and even more curious that we almost always do it together. We watch horror films in groups, visit haunted attractions with friends, and tell ghost stories around the campfire.

🧟‍♂️🚨 New Publication in Emotion Thrilled to share our new paper: "Scared Together: Heart Rate Synchrony and Social Closeness in a High-Intensity Horror Setting" https://t.co/6PLlhsQwgQ

Fear play is mostly social - done with parents, siblings, or friends. And it might serve a purpose: helping kids manage emotions, evaluate risks, and promote learning. This is the first study to show how common that is across childhood. Amazing work, Mihaela! Congrats!

They ask to poke a dead bird with a stick. They sneak peeks at horror clips online. They dare each other to jump from the shed roof. They test how close their finger can get to a knife’s edge. These might sound concerning or odd - but they’re developmentally typical!

We asked 1,600 parents of kids aged 1–17 what scares their kids - in a fun way. Climbing trees till their legs shake. Racing bikes downhill. Watching scary movies. Pretending to be monsters. Teasing older siblings. Playing with fire. 👉 93% enjoy at least one scary activity.

🚨 Kids LOVE fear?!🚨 Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising: Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun! 📄 https://t.co/Ih15DHj22O

👇🙏❤️

Thanks to all who have taken part already! We now have a large number of scifi & thriller fans 🛸🧟, but true crime, horror, drama, and fantasy fans are lagging (among others) 👮👹🧝 - where these fans at? Take part to tell us why your genre is your favourite (5-10 mins)!

A high point from last year's recreational fear workshop 👇

Link:

We’re excited to share a new addition to the Recreational Fear Lab’s website: a photo gallery! It offers a glimpse into our research, experiments, and day-to-day activities as we explore the science of fear and its recreational dimensions.

Our latest study 👇