That's Disgusting by Rachel Herz

Author:Rachel Herz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2011-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

THE THRILL OF IT ALL

The devastating cyclone of events was finally over. Relieved and saddened, Sue stared at the blackened ground where the frightful house once stood. In the quiet, crisp, autumn air, she bent down contemplatively to place a small bouquet of hand-picked wildflowers at the site of her former friend’s dwelling, when suddenly a bloodied arm thrust through the ground, grabbed Sue by the wrist, and tugged her down to the earth below.

This is the final scene in Carrie, and the feeling you get when in that somber scene a grisly arm suddenly lunges for Sue is a rush of fear that can be enjoyable for the sheer excitement it produces. This is the same motivator that makes some people love to ride roller coasters, bungee jump, and sky dive. They know with a reasonable degree of certainty that their speed ride will not end in death, just as the horror movie audience knows that their theater experience will not lead to their imminent demise (unless they’re watching The Ring (2002), where, according to the plot, seeing it makes you die). These horrifying situations provide intense fear in a relatively safe context, leukocyte reactivity notwithstanding, and therefore are pure thrill. However, how much you want to be shocked and stimulated depends on your personality, and specifically a personality trait that is intertwined with your biology and changes as you age.

“Sensation seeking” refers to how physiologically aroused you like to be. People can be categorized on this dimension by answering “true” or “false” about themselves on statements like “I sometimes do ‘crazy’ things just for fun” and “I enjoy getting into new situations where you can’t predict how things will turn out,” as well as how much they’re willing to take risks for the sake of such experiences, such as “I like to explore a strange city or section of town by myself, even if it means getting lost.” If you answered “true” to all these scenarios, you are probably a high sensation seeker. High sensation seekers want novelty, complexity, and excitement, and they also enjoy negative emotions such as fear because of its intensity and accessibility. Fright-inducing exploits like riding roller coasters, bungee jumping, and going to horror movies are easy to do and easy to come by. Low sensation seekers would answer “false” to all the statements above, and they explicitly do not want or like excitement, novelty, risk, and intensity, nor do they enjoy negative experiences or fear. The majority of people are somewhere in between these two extremes.

How much you like to be stimulated is related to your baseline level of neurological arousal—meaning, how awake and active your brain naturally is. People who are naturally hyperalert don’t like high-intensity stimulation because it can easily push them over the edge and become unpleasant, whereas people who are naturally set on low want more jazzing up. That is, high sensation seekers are actually functioning at a comparatively low baseline level of neural arousal and therefore need intense

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.