Whether you jump out of a closet dressed as the Grim Reaper or simply say ‘boo’, millions will be scaring their loved ones this Halloween.
But when you’re planning a joke, researchers warn there’s a sweet spot to hit: You can create a humorous scare without going over the line.
In a new study, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark claim that the best scary Halloween capers only fool people for a second or two.
They discovered that humor and fear are closely intertwined in the human brain. So it is important that the victim can see the funny side sooner or later.
Lead author Marc Hye-Knudsen told MailOnline: ‘For me, the best fear is one that your friend might find funny afterwards.
‘That requires you to know your audience; your shock should be great enough to provoke a reaction, but not so great that it is no longer harmless.
‘Don’t dress up like a serial killer and hide in your grandmother’s closet if you know it could give her a heart attack.
‘But don’t just walk up to your friend and say ‘boo’, because that won’t be very interesting for either party.
Whether they jump out of a closet dressed as the Grim Reaper or simply say “boo,” millions will scare their loved ones this Halloween (file photo)
Dr. Hye-Knudsen added: ‘Anticipate what level of scary your target will be able to laugh at afterwards, and if you laugh at their fear, invite them to laugh about it so they don’t feel like they’re being made fun of held. laughed at, but laughed at instead.
“That way it’s not only funny for you, but for them too.
“In other words, help them find that sweet spot of fear that they will actually enjoy.”
It is already known that the evolutionary purpose of fear is to put us in a state of readiness for action to deal with a potential threat.
For this reason, there is a cascade of stress hormones that activate our sympathetic nervous system and prepare us for fight or flight.
But the researchers say fear is “deeply linked” to humor, in part because of its close processing in the brain.
For the research, published in Evolutionary psychologyresearchers examined ways in which scary things are depicted humorously – including jump scares, peek-a-boo and comedic horror films.
A classic prank, the “jump scare,” is when someone suddenly jumps out of a hiding place and shouts a loud “boo!”, “argh!” say. or similar.
Pictured are still images from a 2016 video of a simple scare prank by YouTuber David Dobrik. For a fraction of a second, the victim detects a threat and is startled (second frame). But she quickly reassesses the situation as neither harmful nor benign
In many cultures around the world, peek-a-boo is one of the first games parents play with their children, which the child may initially find scary.
The jump scare often elicits a response such as a scream or shout, shortly followed by shared laughter between the two.
“The victim must undergo a process of cognitive reappraisal to find humor in the joke,” said Dr. Hye-Knudsen.
Meanwhile, peek-a-boo, which is usually played with babies, can be surprising and scary for the young ones, but they gradually learn to find it humorous.
The victim of a sudden scary prank will initially view it as a ‘violation’ of the world they consider safe, before quickly realizing that it is not real or ‘benign’.
“Scary situations constitute a violation, so anything that scares us can be made humorous if ultimately judged to be benign,” Dr. Hye-Knudsen said.
Essentially, a good approach can be to not take the joke too far by letting the violation of their safe world last for a very long time.
Doing so can have unpleasant, long-lasting consequences, such as causing heart disease, causing psychological damage, or more.
In October 2010, a high school teacher in Taunton, Massachusetts decided it would be funny to enter his classroom wearing a mask and carrying a chainsaw.
In films, directors are known to manipulate the audience’s sense of psychological distance from the events depicted. In the photo: Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931)
Not surprisingly, his students were terrified and in a mad rush to the exit from the classroom, one child suffered a broken bone and serious knee injuries, which led to a lawsuit from the parents.
In another case, parents in Illinois played an ill-advised prank on their children, pretending the mother had been murdered by “Michael Meyers,” the antagonist of the Halloween slasher film series.
Unfortunately, a Meyers family was in the area and the distressed children called the police.
Of course, any joke must fall within the accepted boundaries of what is acceptable, not to mention legal.
Once you’ve chosen your prank method, the study authors emphasize that you should make sure your victim is someone who sees the funny side.
“Contextual cues, cognitive reframing and psychological distance can be used to present things that would otherwise scare us in a good-natured humorous way,” said Dr Hye-Knudsen.
‘If we become aware of this, we can harness the power of humor as a tool to regulate anxiety.
“This can be part of the process of finding the sweet spot of anxiety during recreational anxiety activities, but it can also be part of a therapeutic practice.”