Horror fans are coping better than others with the CoVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

New research, overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic over the past few months, has proven that fans of post-apocalyptic climates and horror movies are less prone to depression and deal with stress better in this difficult time than those who avoid such genres.

Why some people love the horror of horror movies and thrillers is still a big mystery for scientists, but the answer is undoubtedly multidimensional - one hypothesis suggests that traumatic fictional narratives for some people simulate demanding everyday scenarios, but under safe conditions.

• If the movie is good, it pulls us in and we start to feel the perspective of the characters, so we recreate the script unintentionally.

It seems to us that people learn vicariously this way, says one author, Coltan Scrivner, in an interview with The Guardian.

If this hypothesis is even partially true, people who watch post-apocalyptic, pandemic and similar movies and series, and play similar themed games should be better able to deal with pandemic trauma than others.

Scientists decided to check it in practice by conducting appropriate surveys on 310 volunteers.

The questions concerned the type of media consumed by users, with a strong emphasis on how much they like pandemic, post-apocalyptic or invasive climates.

The group was also asked about how they felt prepared for the coronavirus pandemic and how much it affected their health and psychological well-being.

Interestingly, the results were full of interesting nuances - for example, horror fans admitted that the pandemic did not affect their well-being very much, however, this group did not show a high level of preparation or resistance.

Fans of genres called

The "preparers", including apocalyptic scenarios or alien invasions, were much better prepared, although no one was able to defeat fans of typically pandemic genres in this respect.

It is worth noting here that in early March, when the pandemic was just spreading its wings, Steven Soderbergh's 2011 thriller entitled Epidemic of Fear hit the top of the most-watched lists on many streaming services.

This is a puzzle that interested many people, because why would people look for entertainment in a topic that currently poses a huge threat to their health and life, right?

According to the researchers, however, this is a completely normal reaction, because many people want to deal with the enemy at a distance, in a safe environment, while looking for ways and information to deal with him in reality.