Zombies Prepared You for COVID
Have horror movies primed you for the pandemic?
An armed gang drags a nervous-looking scientist through a dark laboratory.
“They’re highly contagious!” The scientist protests, “Stop! You’ve no idea!”
He is restrained.
One of the gang members breaks open the cage and, rather violently, releases the contagion into the world.
Ever since I watched 28 Days Later as a teenager I have been waiting for the zombie apocalypse to begin.
A decade later, I still take note of good vantages point or sources of fresh water and gleefully daydream about bunkering down at the local supermarket while the mindless dead scrape at the doors.
I am not alone.
Around 1 in 10 of us have some kind of zombie survival plan.
Among millennials (guilty!), that number increases to a 1 in 4. After all, don’t we all secretly pine for the end of the world? At least on Sunday evenings.
All that scheming may not have been completely in vain, however. It may have prepared us for the apocalyptic situation we currently find ourselves in.
Since the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, researchers have been trying to understand how different factors have been effecting our mental wellbeing.
While exploring this question, a team of Danish and American psychologists have made an interesting discovery:
Fans of horror movies appear to be more mentally resilient to stresses brought about by COVID-19 than their less morbidly curious counterparts. What's more, fans of particular genres, including zombie movies, seem to have been prepared for the pandemic.
The Study
The research, published in Personality and Individual Differences, resulted from a survey of over three-hundred people who were quizzed about their favourite movies and TV-shows.
Participants were also asked whether they agreed with certain statements regarding their resilience (e.g. I haven’t been sleeping well since the pandemic started), preparedness (e.g. I knew early on which items I should buy in preparation for a pandemic like the Coronavirus pandemic), and morbid curiosity.
As you might expect, the survey contains a few unsettling questions. For example: ‘If a head transplant was possible, would you be interested in watching the procedure?’
Ew.
The Results
After crunching the numbers, the team showed that horror fans reported lower levels of psychological distress in response to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, fans of ‘prepper’ genres, including themes such as zombies, the post-apocalypse and alien-invasions, reported being more prepared for the pandemic.
The preppers also responded less negatively when asked about how COVID-19 had disrupted their lives.
The Conclusion
So, should we all catch the next metaphorical Train to Busan and start binging the horror flicks?
Well, no.
As with all psychological surveys, there are a few caveats.
Firstly, the researchers don’t rule out an underlying factor behind mental resilience and a love of horror movies. Perhaps, people with higher stress tolerance are innately more likely to seek out more extreme forms of entertainment.
The reasoning being that those with a higher threshold for stress may require a more extreme stimulus to become excited.
Secondly, the researchers don’t recommend these genres to everyone. They note that: ‘pandemic-themed movies could actually increase anxiety and psychological distress,’ in some people.
As always, there is more research to be done.
Caveats aside, the study points to the value of horrifying entertainment. As the paper puts it:
One reason that horror use may correlate with less psychological distress is that horror fiction allows its audience to practice grappling with negative emotions in a safe setting. Through fearing the murderer or monster on the screen, audiences have an opportunity to practice emotion regulation skills. Experiencing negative emotions in a safe setting, such as during a horror film, might help individuals hone strategies for dealing with fear and more calmly deal with fear-eliciting situations in real life.
Storytelling is a uniquely human trait, but in essence it is a form of play.
Just as puppies, lion cubs and vicious little kids playfight to simulate situations they may encounter as adults; storytelling allows us to mentally prepare for potentially stressful situations.
Developing a healthy sense of morbid curiosity may provide us with more opportunities to learn about ourselves and our environments.
The research, therefore, is less about zombies and aliens and more about the power of storytelling.
As one of the researchers involved in the project, Professor Emeritus John Jonson, puts it:
“…consuming stories from books, films and maybe even video games is not just an idle pastime, but a way for us to imagine simulated realities that help prepare us for future challenges.”
In that spirit then, I hope this idle pastime has helped prepare you for some future challenges. Most likely psychologists asking you morbid questions.
Tell me, “If you saw a street fight break out and knew you couldn’t intervene, would you still try to watch?”
