Zombies, Horror, and Science - Oh My!
It is approaching Halloween, which for many means trick-or-treating and copious amounts of candy. However, here at the Dunn Lab, it means spine-tingling science (with a side of candy of course)! From the psychology of fear and the love/hate divide of horror movies to real-life zombies found in nature, this week’s blog post dives into the spookiest of science the world has to offer
Beware: content may trigger goosebumps and shivers! Scroll at your own risk.
Is there a psychological component to your love or hate of horror movies?
Does the thought of sitting down and watching a horror movie fill you with excitement or dread? These seemingly polar opposite feelings may not just be a matter of personal taste - according to one article, it may because of a set of psychological differences.
One reason why some people love watching scary movies is because of the Excitation Transfer Process - this process, by definition, is the feeling you get after the movie is over when your blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration are increased following the adrenaline rush caused by the horror of the film. This physiological arousal lingers and helps to intensify other feelings, such as excitement or relief. For example, during a scary movie, the terror that can be felt during a jump scare can help to stimulate the sense of relief when the conflict is resolved.
However, this feeling has the potential to lead to poor thoughts towards horror movies if while you’re experiencing these heightened feelings something negative happens. This may leave lingering negative feelings towards these types of movies.
A second reason for whether you love or hate horror movies may be because of childhood experiences. Exposure to scary incidents as a younger person can help shape a person’s future relationship with fear. For example, people who had more positive experiences engaging with “fun scary”, such as an experience that startles but does not create genuine fear, may make scary activities more fun. This is because of the excitement that becomes associated with slightly frightening experiences. However, exposure to too highly intense events, such as catching a horror movie on TV at an inappropriate young age, may have the opposite effect. As stated by one article, until the age of 5 or 7, “seeing is believing” and the concept of make-believe horror is hard to grasp for younger kids. The fear they may feel as a result of these too scary events may leave permanent feelings of aversion to horror.
Although it may seem like a personal preference as to whether you cannot wait to watch Scream on Halloween or would prefer to do just about anything else (like watch paint dry), there truly is a psychological component to it.
Are zombies only a concept from science fiction?
As a lab full of epidemiologists, we would be lying if the thought of a zombie apocalypse occurring has not crossed our minds. What would be the population impact of such an outbreak?! Check out this article for the epidemiological overview of zombies to find out more. Regarding these nightmare inducing creatures, zombies are found in many different forms across science fiction and horror. Luckily, the slow-moving undead we are used to seeing can stay confined to the pages of scary stories or television screens… or can they?
According to most zombie lore, “zombification”, if you will, occurs when the brain of the dead are reanimated in some way. While this has never been seen in humans, it is a phenomenon that partially happens in nature to various types of insects, plants, and amphibians as a result of parasites, bacteria, or fungi.
The first real-life zombie I’ll discuss here is the carpenter ant. These tiny creatures, known for building nests in trees hollowed out by their own brute force and strong mandible, are the victims of the fungus ophiocordyceps unilateralis - better known as zombie ant fungus. From the moment this fungus enters the ant as a single-cell, its mission is to gain total control of the ant. Although researchers are not entirely sure how the fungus works once in the ant’s body, they do know that eventually the ant effectively dies and loses total control to the fungus. Once this “zombification” process occurs, the ant leaves the nest and climbs high onto a plant where the fungus can flourish. Now on this plant, the ant is forced to bite onto a leaf to maintain the ideal position for the fungus to produce spores and claim more ant victims. This process is quite easily recognizable because the fungus produces a long stalk that emerges from the ant’s head that allows for the spores to spread. Pretty terrifying, right?!
The second real-life zombie I’ll tell you about is the snail, who often fall victim to the parasitic worm Leucochloridium. Specifically speaking, this worm invades the snail’s eyestalks and makes them pulsate in a way that mimics the movement of caterpillars - the prime prey for an unsuspecting bird. Once the eyestalks develop this pulsating movement, the worm controls the snail to move from its normal habitat on the ground up into the open where birds can easily spot it. Here the birds take a bite out of the eyestalk and the worm enters their gut where it breeds and releases its eggs into the bird’s feces. These feces are eaten by the snail and the process starts again.
Although these two organisms may not fit the horror movie or science fiction mold of a zombie, they are hopefully the closest that we will get to it (and you have to admit, pretty spine-tingling too!).
Whether Halloween is your kind of holiday or not, we now hope you have an inkling as to why you might love or hate the idea of being scared. And if you didn’t believe in real-life zombies before, think again! If this scary science didn’t send a shiver down your spine, you can check out some other eerie science fast facts below. Happy Halloween from all of us at the Dunn Lab!
EERIE science fast facts:
1. Some museums use flesh-eating beetles to clean the flesh off specimens so they can be stored safely