Regulate our emotions.
Here's what we would learn from horror movies in the long run.
And especially those about zombies, like the
Walking Dead
or the living dead from
The Dead Don't Die
by Jim Jarmush.
This conclusion appears in a study by the academic journal
Personality and Individual Differences
published in early January, according to which followers of morbid films would have been better prepared for the health crisis of Covid-19.
Read also:
The Dead Don't Die
: smart zombies
Carried out on a sample of 300 people by American and Danish researchers, experts and psychologists, the study asked a series of questions relating to personality, neuroses, extroversion, open-mindedness and consciousness, Coltan Scrivner, one of the researchers, explained in an interview with
The Indian Express
newspaper
.
People were then asked about their favorite cinematographic genre (horror, romance, comedy, etc.).
This survey showed that fans "
of the Prepper genres - zombie, apocalyptic, and alien invasion movies
" were more resilient psychologically during the early months of the pandemic in the United States.
The right reflexes
As Coltan Scrivner explains,
"Zombie appearances are almost by definition pandemics."
In both cases, creatures or viruses infect healthy people as they try to flee.
As such, the survival techniques observed on screen are the same practicable in real life.
For psychologist and Pennsylvania State University professor John Johnson, also author of the study, “
Fiction is not just a lazy pastime.
But a way of imagining simulated realities which unconsciously prepare us for future challenges
”.
Read also: Zombie alert!
Why are they invading our screens more and more?
Used to living the end of the world by proxy, they would thus have developed the right reflexes from the start of the crisis and the first confinement.
“Some felt they knew what to buy to survive the pandemic, and the consequences did not take them by surprise,”
continues Coltan Scrivner.
But then, should we really train to be afraid in order to better face our emotions?
For psychologist Johnson, this study is not an incentive to watch horror and zombie movies.
Even less for those who have not been prepared for it before.
“
I am not sure that watching such films now is useful in our current situation
,” he concluded.
