#Horror movie fans coping better with the coronavirus, study finds

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“Contagion” fans are doing better than the rest of us during the pandemic, a study suggests.
©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett C

If you’re the type who likes to watch apocalyptic movies and TV shows like “Contagion” and “The Walking Dead,” you might have an advantage over those who don’t.

A new study has found that fans of movies and shows featuring the likes of attacking zombies, aliens and infectious diseases cope better in times of crisis, including the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts reckon they are more resilient and better prepared to deal with real-life emergencies like the one hitting the world today.

Viewers can pick up tips on how to behave or react to situations such as panic buying, fake remedies and fear of others.

“If it’s a good movie, it pulls you in and you take the perspective of the characters, so you are unintentionally rehearsing the scenarios,” Coltan Scrivner, a University of Chicago researcher who specializes in morbid curiosity tells the Guardian. “We think people are learning vicariously. It’s like, with the exception of the toilet paper shortage, they pretty much knew what to buy.”

He came to the conclusion after his fellow researchers quizzed 310 people about their movie preferences and viewing histories. They then asked them about how prepared they felt for COVID-19 and their experiences of anxiety, depression, irritability and sleeplessness.

Those who were partial to horror appeared less upset by the crisis than the majority, and the ones who enjoyed so-called “prepper movies” — where society collapses — ranked as more resilient and able to plan ahead, both in terms of mental and practical preparation.

“You’ve seen it a hundred times in the movies,” Scrivner says, “so it doesn’t catch you off-guard so much.”

Mathias Clasen, a psychologist at Aarhus University and a co-author of the story, agrees.

“If you’ve watched a lot of what we call prepper movies, you will have vicariously lived through massive social upheavals, states of martial law, people responding in both pro-social and dangerously selfish ways to sudden catastrophic events,” Clasen says.

“Compared to somebody who has never simulated the end of the world, you’ll be in a better place because you have that vicarious experience.”