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From vampire apocalypses, shark attacks, witches, and ghosts, to murderous dolls bent on revenge, horror has been part of the American cinematic imagination for almost as long as pictures have moved on screens. But why do they captivate us so? What is the drive to be frightened, and why is it so perennially popular? Why Horror Seduces addresses these questions through evolutionary social sciences. Explaining the functional seduction of horror entertainment, this book draws on cutting-edge findings in the evolutionary social sciences, showing how the horror genre is a product of human nature. Integrating the study of horror with the sciences of human nature, the book claims that horror entertainment works by targeting humans' adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe, allowing a high intensity experience within a safe context. Through analyses of well-known and popular modern American works of horror-Rosemary's Baby; The Shining; I Am Legend; Jaws; and several others-author Mathias Clasen illustrates how these works target evolved cognitive and emotional mechanisms; we are attracted to horrifying entertainment because we have an adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe that allows us to experience negative emotions at high levels of intensity within a safe context. Organized into three parts identifying fictional works by evolutionary mode - the evolution of horror; evolutionary interpretations of horror; the future of horror - Why Horror Seduces succinctly explores the cognitive processes behind spectators' need to scream.

Horror tales, American --- American fiction --- American literature --- History and criticism. --- Psychological aspects. --- History and criticism

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This pioneering volume offers an expansive introduction to the relatively new field of evolutionary studies in imaginative culture. Contributors from psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, and the humanities probe the evolved human imagination and its artefacts. The book forcefully demonstrates that imagination is part of human nature. Contributors explore imaginative culture in seven main areas: Imagination: Evolution, Mechanisms and Functions Myth and Religion Aesthetic Theory Music Visual and Plastic Arts Video Games and Films Oral Narratives and Literature Evolutionary Perspectives on Imaginative Culture widens the scope of evolutionary cultural theory to include much of what “culture” means in common usage. The contributors aim to convince scholars in both the humanities and the evolutionary human sciences that biology and imaginative culture are intimately intertwined. The contributors illuminate this broad theoretical argument with comprehensive insights into religion, ideology, personal identity, and many particular works of art, music, literature, film, and digital media. The chapters “Imagination, the Brain’s Default Mode Network, and Imaginative Verbal Artifacts” and “The Role of Aesthetic Style in Alleviating Anxiety About the Future” are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Personality. --- Social psychology. --- Personality and Social Psychology. --- Mass psychology --- Psychology, Social --- Human ecology --- Psychology --- Social groups --- Sociology --- Personal identity --- Personality psychology --- Personality theory --- Personality traits --- Personology --- Traits, Personality --- Individuality --- Persons --- Self --- Temperament --- Imaginació --- Psicologia pedagògica --- Fantasia --- Creació artística --- Visualització

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Blumhouse Productions is the first academic book to examine one of the film industry's most successful producers of horror cinema. Individual chapters offer readers a deeper appreciation of how Blumhouse makes its films with an unusual, but successful, business model.

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Die Untersuchung möglicher evolutionärer Ursprünge menschlichen Verhaltens und dabei auch der Kunst und Literatur hat sich in den letzten Jahren zu einem fruchtbaren, aber auch umstittenen Arbeitsfeld entwickelt. Galt noch vor wenigen Jahren das Paradigma, dass ausschließlich Kultur die menschliche Lebenswirklichkeit bestimmt, so werden inzwischen alternative Modelle diskutiert, nach denen auch evolutionär erworbene Faktoren eine wesentliche Rolle spielen können. Daraus ergeben sich spannende Fragestellungen für die Untersuchung der Funktionalität des Erzählens in der frühmenschlichen Umwelt, der Entwicklung narrativer Strukturen sowie auch der Rolle bei der Produktion und Rezeption fiktionaler Texte. Die in diesem Band versammelten Aufsätze diskutieren diese Fragen aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven und geben damit einen umfassenden Überblick über den aktuellen Forschungsstand in diesem wesentlichen interdisziplinären Forschungsgebiet.

Storytelling. --- Literature and science. --- Human evolution in literature. --- Evolution (Biology) in literature. --- Storytelling --- Literature and science --- Anthropology --- Social Sciences --- Folklore --- Story-telling --- Telling of stories --- Poetry and science --- Science and literature --- Science and poetry --- Oral interpretation --- Children's stories --- Oral interpretation of fiction --- Science and the humanities --- Performance --- Adaptation. --- Darwinism. --- Evolution and Literature. --- Narration.