SPONSORED BY  | | | | October 30, 2023: Why people love being scared, a big mystery in physics and the closest creature to a werewolf on Earth. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Why do people love haunted houses and scary movies? Voluntary exposure to horror and scares is rooted deeply in our evolutionary past and can help us overcome fears and learn how to respond to new challenges—those that surface in our own lives and others that arise in the world. Studies show that there's a strong group bonding element to scary play: People actively regulate their fear and arousal levels when getting scared together.
How it works: Many other animals engage in scary play or morbid curiosity–often in the form of predator watching. When young animals inspect their predators from afar (think gazelles and cheetahs) they learn about the biggest threat in their lives. Meanwhile, play with peers trains them to respond under pressure. For humans, even the fear of exaggerated predators (like zombies) creates strong emotional and behavioral responses, familiarizing us with these reactions for when we have to deal with more down-to-earth dangers.
Why this is interesting: Children are often the intended audience for scary oral stories because these stories can help them learn about risks early in their lives. Researchers who study human fun and games have argued that the decline of thrilling, unstructured play over the past few decades has contributed to a rise in childhood anxiety over that same time period. | | | When the universe was less than a half-million years old it was relatively uniform—having only minuscule variations in the density of energy and matter. Across cosmic history, gravity has amplified these variations to create the clusters and superclusters of galaxies we see today. However, the force of dark energy —the mysterious force driving an acceleration in cosmic expansion—counteracts this gravitational action, delaying the formation of those structures. In a new paper, physicists studying the large-scale structure of the universe find that dark energy may be changing over time, or even augmented by another as-yet-unknown force.
What this means: The new work tracked the eons-spanning timing of this gradual cosmic coalescence, finding evidence it was delayed for even longer than basic models of dark energy can readily explain. This could mean that dark energy has somehow grown stronger over time, or that another undiscovered force is suppressing large-scale structure formation.
What the experts say: The investigation "fits into a larger set of papers that are maybe finding a discrepancy between the level of matter clustering in the present-day universe, compared to what we would predict based on what we observe in the cosmic microwave background," says David Weinberg, chair of the astronomy department at the Ohio State University. "The implications are very profound because you would probably have to modify the theory of gravity on cosmological scales in order to explain it." | | | Credit: Oxford Scientific Films/Getty Images | | | • Even well-intentioned educators may unknowingly send discouraging messages to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Societies need to improve the social integration of children from different backgrounds in schools, writes Eddie Brummelman, an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam. | 6 min read | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY CURE | Cure Launches Its First Xchange Challenge: Health AI for Good | How can we responsibly and equitably use AI in health to accelerate basic research, diagnose conditions, develop novel treatments, predict and prevent disease, and lead to better health outcomes and cures? Apply to the Cure Xchange Challenge: Health AI for Good today and you could win a share of seed money from a pool of $1 million, 1-YR residency at Cure in NYC and mentorship from our advisors. Learn More | | | I've never been a fan of scary movies--mostly because they usually seem so silly (WHY do they always go into the barn alone??). But a good haunted house I love. If you ever find yourself in Philadelphia around October, I recommend checking out Halloween Nights at the Eastern State Penitentiary--you'll wind through the abandoned wings of the former prison's asterisk-shaped layout. It's thrilling even without the zombies. | What great scary movies are worth the watch? Let me know and send any other feedback to: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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