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Moriah Wedderburn

Pillsbury

Honors ELA 9 Hour 2

23 October 2022

Article of the Week #3

An article titled "Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?” was written by Allegra Ringo and

published on October 31, 2013. This article is all about humans' enjoyment of fear, and the science and

facts behind it. Each header poses a different question related to fear, then answers the question

throughout the following paragraph.

One major point that could be gleaned from Ringo’s article is that humans seem to be afraid of

anything that’s new or different from what they are used to. This is shown throughout paragraph five,

where the topic is how in order “To really enjoy a scary situation, we have to know we’re in a safe

environment''. This highlights how humans tend to be scared of anything different than what they’re

used to: in order for humans to enjoy fear, it has to be in a situation they recognise and know they're

safe in. So, if the setting was different, they’d have real fear, not “fun fear”, showing that what's

different can be seen as uncomfortable and scary. This idea is added onto when it is stated that almost

all “Monsters are defying the general laws of nature in some way”(7). From this, we learn that almost

all monsters are not normal & go against what we are used to, which is a big part of what makes

monsters frightening. This once again proves that humans tend to find what we are not used to/ goes

against normal, scary. It is also noted in the text that “We want to imagine a life that goes on after we

die. Or better yet, figure out a way to live forever. Again, though, that would violate the laws of nature
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and is therefore terrifying”(8). Once again, what we believe to be abnormal and go against the laws of

nature can be thought of as scary, and that abnormalities are seen as very unsettling. With this gathered

from the text, we can see that humans seem to have a fear of anything abnormal, and we get scared

when we don’t feel we’re in a normal situation, resulting in fear.

(350)

Works Cited

Ringo, Allegra. “Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 8

June 2021,

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/why-do-some-brains-enjoy-fear/280

938/.