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This review piece covers three recent articles: Dubourg, Edgar, and Nicolas Baumard. 2022. “Why Imaginary Worlds? The Psychological Foundations and Cultural Evolution of Fictions with Imaginary Worlds.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 45 (e276): 1–72. doi:10.1017/S0140525X21000923. Justus, Timothy. 2022. “Constructing Film Emotions: The Theory of Constructed Emotion as a Biocultural Framework for Cognitive Film Theory.” Projections 16 (2): 74–101. doi:10.3167/proj.2022.160204. Scrivner, Coltan, Marc M. Andersen, Uffe Schjødt, and Mathias Clasen. 2022. ”The Psychological Benefits of Scary Play in Three Types of Horror Fans.” Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications. Advance online publication. doi:10.1027/1864-1105/a000354. This review was slated to be published in Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture (vol. 7.2). However, contributions were pulled following a transfer of ownership of the journal.

Chapter on the cultural significance DOOM (1993)

Review of recent publications in the evolutionary/biocultural humanities that fall under the rubric of audiovisual media

Review of recent publications in the evolutionary/biocultural humanities that fall under the rubric of audiovisual media.

Supplementary materials for "Evil Voices in Popular Fictions: The Case of The Exorcist"

This project brings a personality psychological perspective to the debate about why and how so many people sympathize with, or root for, or simply like unambiguously villainous characters. The presentation reports the results of a large-scale online survey (n=1804) that explores the connections between personality and positive forms of engagement with villainous characters. In particular, it explores whether the personality psychological constructs of Agency/Communion and/or the Dark Triad (consisting of the traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) predict positive forms of engagements with villainous characters. The results of the survey suggests that the Dark Triad is uniquely predictive of positive forms of engagement with villainous characters.

With empirical data from a large-scale online survey, this paper demonstrates that horror liking is a majority phenomenon and provides insight into the personality traits of horror users. A preference for horror media is predicted by the personality traits of sensation-seeking and intellect/imagination. Males are slightly more likely than females to seek out horror, and they do so more often and tend to prefer more extreme horror. The paper integrates the data from the survey into a cognitive-evolutionary theory of horror, according to which horror media function as threat simulation. Horror may provide users with psychological, behavioral, social, and moral insight; further, horror may serve as a context for the calibration of coping strategies, all of which may be adaptive.

The paradox of horror” is the problem of why so many people are motivated to experience the negative emotions induced by horror media. In this talk, we argue that an evolutionary analysis may dissolve the paradox of horror. From an evolutionary perspective, horror may be analyzed as a simulation technology that allows users to attain adaptive experience with perceived threat and negative emotion in a safe environment. The argument is supported by results from a comprehensive MTurk survey of American users of horror media (n=1,071). Results include findings on the personal details (e.g., sex), supernatural beliefs (e.g., paranormal beliefs), personality traits (e.g., Big Five), horror genre preferences (e.g., supernatural versus natural horror), and horror-induced emotional responses of users of horror media. The strongest individual predictors of horror media enjoyment are sex (male preference), sensation seeking, and the personality characteristic Intellect/Imagination.