Question submitted by Chanel, North Melbourne
It’s October, which means it’s almost spooky season.
If you really think about it, Halloween is such a strange phenomenon — humans have spent thousands of years creating civilised societies where we can feel safe, only to subsequently invent Halloween (plus horror films, roller coasters and a host of other fear-inducing activities) specifically designed to scare the crap out of ourselves. And that’s to say nothing of subjecting ourselves to super spicy food, extreme endurance events and cricket.
What is it about the macabre that we seem so drawn towards? Can’t we just be happy living the kinds of safe, convenient, fear free lives our predecessors could only have dreamt of?
So what gives?
Benign Masochism
Benign Masochism refers to our tendency to find pleasure in experiences that are initially perceived as unpleasant or threatening. When we have an experience that we falsely interpret as a threat, the eventual realisation that we’ve been fooled, and that there is no real danger, leads to a rush of pleasure (and relief).
This applies far more broadly than just fear. In 2023, Cambridge University researchers Paul Rozin, Lily Guillot, Katrina Fincher, Alexander Rozin and Eli Tsukayama tested over 29 hedonic reversals (the conversion of a usually negative experience into a positive one). They found that Benign Masochism can trigger far and wide across tear jerking literature, sad songs, sweaty workouts, spicy food and scary flicks. It turns out there’s something about the physical sensations of our elevated heart rates, burning mouths and extreme exhaustion that we kind of love. Go figure!
The good news for you Chanel, is that this probably means your horror buff friends are unlikely to be actual psychopath serial killers after all. Hooray!
For Challenger Brands, Benign Masochism presents an opportunity to think about ways of dialling things up to 1,000. Maybe it’s the world’s hoppiest IPA or a truly heartbreaking TVC. Just don’t let it be the hold times on your customer service line!
Behaviourally Yours,
PS If you missed the last edition, you can still check out why crime rates seem to be on a perpetual rise here.
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