Surfing Uncertainty with Screams: Predictive Processing, Error Dynamics and Horror Films

Abstract

Despite tremendous efforts in psychology, neuroscience, and media and cultural studies, it is still something of a mystery why humans are attracted to fictional content that is horrifying, disgusting or otherwise aversive. While the psychological benefits of horror films, stories, video games, (etc.) has recently been demonstrated empirically, current theories emphasizing the negative and positive consequences of this engagement often contradict one another. Here, we suggest the active inference framework may provide a unifying account of horror media engagement that provides clear and testable hypotheses, and explains why a “sweet spot” of fear and fun exists in horror entertainment.

Curious about threats: Morbid curiosity and interest in conspiracy theories in US adults

“…This research proposes that humans are driven to minimize prediction errors associated with incoming sensory signals (Miller et al, 2023) and that anxiety and depression are associated with a reduced signal-to-noise ratio in interoceptive inference (Paulus & Stein, 2010). Given the high cost of uncertain and anxious states, it is unsurprising that the predictive system may adopt dysfunctional patterns of activity, in order to exert some sense of control over these signals (Miller et al, 2023), especially when the appeal of threatening explanations may be enhanced by negative credulity bias (Fessler et al, 2014).…”

“…Narratives which contain details of threats may not just be attractive because they offer valuable learning signals about the world, potentially improving the ability to predict threats, but also because they confirm prior expectations about threats. When these expectations are particularly negative, such as when individuals perceive the world to be dangerous (such as in Study 2), or in more dangerous environments, the predictive system may enter a feedback loop where it continues to engage with the negative content to reconfirm beliefs that the world is a dangerous place, as in Study 3 (see also Fessler et al, 2014;Miller et al, 2023). Given that seeking out pro-attitudinal content plays a role in their appeal (Guess et al, 2020), conspiracy theories may offer a strong source for such a negative expectationnegative confirmation feedback loop, leading to dysfunctional engagement with available narratives, a lack of appeasement and continued anxiety.…”

“…Given the association between morbid curiosity and conspiracy theory belief, recent work examining the role of anxiety, morbid curiosity and predictive processing in the appeal of horror films may offer useful insights and future lines of inquiry for researchers in the psychology of conspiracy theories. This research proposes that humans are driven to minimize prediction errors associated with incoming sensory signals (Miller et al, 2023) and that anxiety and depression are associated with a reduced signal-to-noise ratio in interoceptive inference (Paulus & Stein, 2010). Given the high cost of uncertain and anxious states, it is unsurprising that the predictive system may adopt dysfunctional patterns of activity, in order to exert some sense of control over these signals (Miller et al, 2023), especially when the appeal of threatening explanations may be enhanced by negative credulity bias (Fessler et al, 2014).…”

Effect of Digital HRM on Employee Performance: The Role of Employee Trust and Organizational identity in the Banking Sector of Pakistan

“…Infineon Advances Bantam can manage issues that arise in doing tasks in the field. Of course, not the slightest bit like RL, developmental learning Glebkin (2024) Miller, White, andScrivner (2024) relies upon the likelihood that babies (or, even more completely, living creatures) get new capacities while promptly examining their ongoing conditions (Felin, Gambardella, Novelli, & Zenger, 2024;Folgheraiter, Yessirkepov, & Umurzakov, 2023;Panzer, Bender, & Gronau, 2023). This is for the most part called normal motivation (INTRINSIC MOTIVATION), which can be gotten from an intrinsic honor.…”