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\u00a0<\/strong>Come into the darkest depths of your mind\u2026 if you dare<\/strong><\/p>\n Camosun College psychology professor Michael Pollock has some of the answers to the age-old question of why we like to be scared.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the same kind of thing as our ancestors sitting around a cave fire and hearing stories that prepare us in case we stumble upon similar encounters,\u201d says Pollock. \u201cWe\u2019re fascinated, even though it scares us to imagine ourselves in those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n Pollock says whether we\u2019re afraid or not, there are theories out there and studies done to show that there\u2019s a physiological arousal to identify what emotion it is.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing scared in certain situations and consciously recognizing the fear is different than unidentifiable unconscious emotional reactions like scary movies and elements of Halloween, which produce arousing experiences like fight-or-flight reactions,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been documented that if we associate things that scare us with something pleasurable, then we can consciously interpret them as things that are enjoyable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen people enjoy being scared, they are usually thrill-seekers,\u201d he says. \u201cThis makes me wonder whether they are not able to get enough stimulation in their day-to-day lives and go about getting it by stimulating fear within themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Pollock has delved into the thrill-seeking trait by conducting sleep experiments with student volunteers to see how scary movies have an influence on their sleep.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done this experiment multiple times and, sure enough, it disrupts people\u2019s sleep and causes nightmares,\u201d he says. \u201cAfter we\u2019ve analyzed their dreams I\u2019ll show them the data and statistics and ask them whether they will still watch scary movies. Almost every time, nine out of 10 students will still want to, even though it can scare them and disrupt their moods in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n The psychology of wearing Halloween costumes and role-playing takes a person and puts them into situations where they are frightening to others.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dark side of Halloween costumes and depersonalizing ourselves is interesting,\u201d says Pollock. \u201cSome think that if they\u2019re unrecognizable they can start riots and commit crimes. Personally, I think Halloween costumes are liberating and a way to not portray our normal personas.\u201d<\/p>\n Paint it black\u2026 and every other colour<\/strong><\/p>\n Local painter Kristin Grant is surrounded by the liberation that costumes bring: she creates body art and costumes. Grant has been body painting for only a couple of years but has been contracted out to do work for lots of Victoria thrill-seekers.<\/p>\n Grant wants people to feel beautiful in her paint, and she feels she achieves that even when creating something scary.<\/p>\n \u201cPeoples\u2019 costuming experience is different depending on the characters they portray,\u201d she says. \u201cDifferent characters bring out different aspects of the personality and it\u2019s really fun to watch the evolution of different characters after they\u2019ve been created.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant recently had a client who was having her first-ever photo shoot and had been painted for the first time. Grant transformed her into a \u201cdark, mysterious alien goddess\u201d and saw quite the evolution in her client.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was amazed when it was finished,\u201d says Grant. \u201cShe said she hadn\u2019t realized she could look so beautiful; it was amazing. I was the assistant for her photo shoot and saw her in these beautiful, goddess-like poses being so empowered and powerful in front of the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant doesn\u2019t just paint other people; she turns the spray can on herself. One of her favourite characters to portray is a clown zombie.<\/p>\n \u201cI love being a clown zombie because it\u2019s the craziest character I can think of. I can be curious, funny, scary, and purposely creep people out as a clown zombie,\u201d says Grant. \u201cIt\u2019s so easy for me to release any spontaneous inspirations I have as a clown zombie. There\u2019s no boundaries to embodying my character, especially when I\u2019m covered in paint.\u201d<\/p>\n From clown zombies to the cheap thrills of horror movies, Halloween is all about escaping reality and embracing the joys of fear, for whatever reason. But just remember, sometimes a costume is more than a disguise. Sometimes, according to Grant, it\u2019s not about hiding at all: it\u2019s an amplification of a certain part of that person.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people want to be scary for Halloween because they don\u2019t express their dark sides often, while others want to be something pretty or funny,\u201d says Grant. \u201cPeople want to experience their Halloween portraying different aspects, so they choose their characters based on what part of themselves they want to unleash.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Halloween originated as a holiday called All Hallow\u2019s Eve, which celebrated the evening before All Hallow\u2019s, which was a Christian holiday. All Hallow\u2019s Eve embraced Pagan traditions and honouring the dead, and over time it has gotten a reputation for embracing the ghouls, ghosts, and other dark spooks of the world. With scary movies and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-issue","category-october-17-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4489"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4495,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions\/4495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a>