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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[–] stelelor@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 months ago

I think that fear is just one of the many responses humans like to stimulate. Spicy foods and deep massages? Fancy pain. Fireworks and laser shows? Fancy lights and colors. I wonder if it ties into the ability to remember that we survived the painful stimulus long enough to enjoy the aftermath, so we're more likely to seek out that stimulus in the future? High risk = high reward kind of thing.

Also brings this to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus