this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Showerthoughts

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It's weird that we enjoy stimulating our fear response (lemmy.ca)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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What would aliens think if they leaned we evolved fear as a survival mechanism, but we intentionally seek out situations that trigger our fear response, for fun?

Horror movies, extreme sports, thrill-seeking, it's all weird.

Edit
Changed the title and added an extra line to make it clear I'm talking about the fear response, and not specifically about extreme sports

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[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Extreme sports was more supposed to be an example. Horror movies are the same.

People go out of their way to feel scared, what would aliens think of that?

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

That we distill what makes us uncomfortable and make a mockery of it. As a communal past time.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's still a pretty messed up pass time if you're not anthropomorphizing. It's a crazy way to have evolved.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

There's a reason we're at the top of the food chain.

I saw someone do a creative writing exercise where they wrote as a wise wild animal explaining why you don't fuck with humans. We're terrifying.

If a shark tries to taste just one of us, millions of us will attack their whole species.

We domesticated fucking wolves. Wolves realized it was better to bow down and beg for treats than to consider competing.