- That's a classic drive-in theater ad warning
against teenage hanky panky during the film.
- Ah, but when faced with the terror of 1960s horror cinema,
do you think those teenagers really even had a choice?
(upbeat techno music)
- [Man] I know this is gonna come as a shocker,
but humans did not evolve to watch horror movies.
Our bodies and minds are honed to deal with world
physical threats, and horror movies simply hack the system.
- [Woman] The sights and sounds of that horror movie
stream into your skull to the brain's amygdala,
which handles instantaneous emotional processing,
especially of love, pleasure, fear and terror.
- [Man] This unleashes an energizing cocktail of hormones.
Adrenal glands pump out the stress hormone cortisol,
which can impede insulin, causing a rise in blood sugar
for a little extra flight or fight fuel.
- [Woman] Your breath quickens, your heart races,
your appetite stalls, your pupils dilate,
you might even break a sweat.
And all within three seconds of a scare.
Nerve cells also start to release endorphins
to combat injuries and your brain releases
the neurotransmitter dopamine.
- [Man] So you can think of a scary movie as a kind of drug.
Ask a date to go see one with you and you're essentially
saying, hey, we don't know each other all that well,
but let's share an artificial state
of arousal with each other.
- [Woman] And then there's something called misattribution
of arousal, the process by which we mistake the cause
of our bodily whoo whoo feelings.
- [Man] It takes us back to a pivotal 1974 study known as
the Capilano Suspension Bridge Experiment.
Male test subjects marched across two bridges
spanning the Capilano River in North Vancouver, Canada.
One bridge was as stable as they come, while the other,
well, that's exaggerating things a bit,
but you get the idea.
- [Woman] When the test subjects reached the other side,
female interviewers conducted a survey.
The males who had crossed the scary bridge
filled out their questionnaires with stronger sexual imagery
than the men on the safe bridge.
And they were five times as likely to take the surveyor up
on an offer to call her later in case they had
any other questions about the experiment.
- [Man] What happened? Well, the men felt the bodily rush
of crossing a wonky rope bridge and then,
when presented with new, pleasurable stimuli,
their brains decided that surely this was the cause
of that fluttery feeling in their bodies.
- [Woman] Scientists believe this all has to do
with the chemical dopamine, which feels like
it's gushing out when we have that first rush
of attraction or terror.
Again, it comes back to shared mechanisms
of a reaction to stimuli.
- [Man] The study hasn't always held up
to intense scrutiny, but it still seems to reveal
something about human behavior, for both males and females.
So it stands to reason that a little misattributed arousal
plays into any post-horror movie makeout session.
- [Woman] But with humans, it's never so simple, is it?
Horror movies, even the bad ones, are loaded
with thematic and symbolic power.
Psycho killers wield phallic weapons against wanton teens
and vagina-like aliens leap out from the shadows.
- [Man] Naked people pop out of the woodwork,
turn into beasts, catch diseases, then transform
into monsters and the next thing you know this lady's
smooching a zombie and we're weirdly okay with it.
- [Woman] But even without all these human complexities,
we can still find examples of the horror movie aphrodisiac
in the natural world.
Meet the splendid fairy wren, a small Australian bird
that knows how to turn potential tragedy
into a romantic pickup.
Yes, the males belt out a special mating call
immediately in the wake of a predatory butcher bird's call.
- [Man] I mean hey, the females are already
at maximum attention because of the butcher bird's
murderous call, so the male fairy wren
just fills in that awkward silence to follow
with a, "Hello, ladies."
It's a tactic that seems to work.
- [Woman] Look, we can't guarantee results,
and by all means choose your horror movie selection
with care, but it seems scary movies
are the perfect aphrodisiac, a body-hacking dose
of supernormal stimuli that leaves us aroused,
disturbed and in need of human contact.
I said human contact!
- So which horror movie do you think makes
for the best aphrodisiac?
- For me it's On Golden Pond, absolutely terrifying.
What about you?
Let us know in the comments below.
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