Recreational Fear Lab

What's the Recreational Fear Lab, and what are we up to? You can learn about some of our projects and meet several lab members in our new promo video (@TTerkildsen, @Marc_M_Andersen, @MathiasClasen, @MorbidPsych, and @mihaela_taranu): youtu.be/fhGHLj1JfRk

Obsession is making audiences scream in terror and howl with laughter. How come? And why do so many of the currently most interesting horror film directors have a background in comedy? New blog post by @marchk: cc.au.dk/en/recreationa…

Why did @StephenKing become everybody's favorite boogeyman? Help us find out by taking (and sharing) the Stephen King Fan Survey:

The Fifth Annual Aarhus Workshop on Recreational Fear is coming up. Don't forget to register! cc.au.dk/en/recreationa…

Our 5th annual workshop on recreational fear is happening in Aarhus on Dec 12! Free participation, registration required. Venue: Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (aias.au.dk) Speakers + program: cc.au.dk/.../news-and-e… Register: event.au.dk/events/when-fe…

Thrilled to present a new PhD student in the lab: Aleksandra Cyrek 🥳👻🎃 cc.au.dk/en/recreationa…

Recreational fear in childhood, from the gang over at the @RecFearLab and elsewhere: link.springer.com/content/pdf/10…

- but an exciting one. Thanks to our amazing research assistants, fantastic collaborators, and to the brave participants who screamed for science. 👻

These results align wiith prior research showing that shared experiences can amplify both emotional intensity and physiological alignment. Whether this synchrony emerges during shared fear or reflects pre-existing alignment between close individuals remains an open question -

🧟‍♂️🚨 New Publication in Emotion Thrilled to share our new paper: "Scared Together: Heart Rate Synchrony and Social Closeness in a High-Intensity Horror Setting" psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-45…

Fear play is mostly social - done with parents, siblings, or friends. And it might serve a purpose: helping kids manage emotions, evaluate risks, and promote learning. This is the first study to show how common that is across childhood. Amazing work, Mihaela! Congrats!

They ask to poke a dead bird with a stick. They sneak peeks at horror clips online. They dare each other to jump from the shed roof. They test how close their finger can get to a knife’s edge. These might sound concerning or odd - but they’re developmentally typical!

🚨 Kids LOVE fear?!🚨 Our new study led by Mihaela Taranu from the Recreational Fear Lab uncovers something surprising: Children across all ages actively seek out scary experiences - for fun! 📄link.springer.com/article/10.100…

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Thanks to all who have taken part already! We now have a large number of scifi & thriller fans 🛸🧟, but true crime, horror, drama, and fantasy fans are lagging (among others) 👮👹🧝 - where these fans at? Take part to tell us why your genre is your favourite (5-10 mins)!