Short Stuff: Why does it feel good to be scared?

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Stuff You Should Know

Episode: Short Stuff: Why does it feel good to be scared?

Date: June 24, 2026

Hosts: Josh & Chuck | Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Josh and Chuck explore a curious question: Why do people actively seek out experiences that scare them—be it haunted houses, scary movies, or other fright-inducing situations? The hosts dissect the science behind why fear can actually feel good, distinguish between fear and anxiety, and discuss the psychological and social benefits of voluntarily engaging with scary stimuli.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Delineating Fear vs. Anxiety

• Chuck and Josh clarify that the “good” kind of fear they’re talking about is not anxiety.
  • Anxiety: Ongoing worry about things that haven’t happened, often tied to existential threats or concerns ("stuff that keeps you up at night") [03:00].
  • Fear: An immediate response to something in front of you, like a jump scare ("somebody jumping out and saying boo") [03:15].

2. Why Voluntary Fear Feels Good

• People choose to engage in frightening experiences. This choice gives them a sense of control or mastery over fear, differentiating it from real, uncontrolled threats [07:42]:
  • “By saying, ‘I’m choosing to do this… I’m in charge.’” – Josh [07:43]
  • There’s an internal assurance that the threat isn’t real, e.g., “I’m not actually going to be stabbed by this green guy...” – Josh [08:04]
  • Voluntary fear is termed by researchers as voluntary engagement with negative high-arousal stimuli [04:00].

3. The Biological Process of Scaring Yourself

• The process involves several steps:
  1. Choice and Anticipation: Acknowledging you’re facing the fear by your own decision [07:43].
  2. Fight or Flight Reaction: During the scary moment, adrenaline, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins are released [08:50].
     • Physical changes: increased heart rate, blood pressure, rapid breathing [03:34].
  3. Aftereffect (Cool Down Phase): The parasympathetic nervous system calms you down after the scare, creating a unique feeling that can be exhilarating or even giddy [10:56].
     • “Now your body…is like, cool out, everybody…You can just feel great. You can feel relaxed, maybe even a sense of giddiness.” – Josh [10:56]

4. Social Bonding and Shared Experience

• Scary experiences are typically done in groups, resulting in a sense of camaraderie and euphoria after facing fear together [11:43].
  • “You’re building a bond of an experience that was scary that you shared together…almost euphoria of the shared experience that everyone has.” – Chuck [11:43]
  • Oxytocin promotes social bonding; this is why people hug or cling to each other during scary moments [12:31].

5. Catharsis and Emotional Release

• Scary experiences offer a safe, socially-acceptable setting to scream, let off steam, and relieve stress [13:02].
  • “It’s a place where it’s socially acceptable to do something like scream your head off and just let out stress.” – Josh [13:02]
  • Compared to primal scream therapy (“seems pretty weird” to some), haunted houses let people scream in a fun way [13:37].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Chuck (sarcastically, after Josh’s joke scare):
  “Oh, my God. Oh, boy. As it turns out, that was really exhilarating, and I feel great now.” [01:46]
• Josh (discussing control):
  “By saying, ‘I’m choosing to do this… I’m in charge.’” [07:43]
• Chuck (on group experiences):
  “You’re building… a bond of an experience that was scary that you shared together…It’s exhilarating. It’s like a high that… Reliving the experience together…” [11:43]
• Josh (on the cool-down phase):
  “Your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in… let’s just mellow out. Nothing actually happened… you can just feel great… a sense of giddiness…” [10:56]
• Chuck (on screaming):
  “There’s primal scream therapy, but a lot of people would say like, oh, that seems pretty weird, but that same person might go to a haunted house and scream their head off…” [13:37]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:14] – Episode introduction and the core question: Why do we scare ourselves?
• [02:35] – Differentiation between fear and anxiety.
• [03:34] – Physical fight-or-flight response explained.
• [04:00] – Definition: voluntary engagement with negative high-arousal stimuli.
• [07:19] – Discussion resumes post-ad break; recapping the target kind of fear.
• [07:43] – The sense of mastery and control in voluntary scare experiences.
• [08:50] – The biological “rush” (dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins).
• [10:56] – The parasympathetic “cool down” and feeling of exhilaration/giddiness.
• [11:43] – The social bonding effect of shared scary experiences.
• [13:02] – Catharsis and why screaming in haunted houses feels good.

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Tone & Style Notes

• Josh & Chuck maintain a humorous, conversational, and accessible tone throughout, interspersed with light banter and self-deprecating jokes (e.g., joking about being “too scared” for haunted houses) [14:14].
• They use analogies and personal anecdotes to keep the explanation relatable, referencing current trends and joking about parent/kid culture wars [09:33–10:37].

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Takeaways

• We seek out scary experiences to feel in control of fear, to trigger the biological rush of the fight-or-flight response, and for the post-fear relaxation and exhilaration.
• Shared fear creates powerful social bonds.
• Screaming and reacting to fear can serve as a healthy, cathartic release.

Final Note: If you’re wondering why haunted houses are so popular every October, or why you love (or hate) scary movies, this episode breaks it down with both science and humor—easily digestible for the “fright-curious.”

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Transcript

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[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

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[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. And Jerry's here, too, sitting in for Dave. And this is stuff you should know. And we're here to answer a perennial question that everyone wants to know. Just why in the gosh darn heck do we make ourselves scared on purpose?

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. Here. Scare me real quick. Do something. Let's do a little exercise.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

You're starting to look old.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

No, no, no. It's really scary. Say boo or something.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Oh, okay. That's going to scare you more.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, okay. Boo.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Oh, my God. Oh, boy. As it turns out, that was really exhilarating, and I feel great now.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, well, you overcame a fear, a real threat.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. It is an interesting question, though. And thanks to our old [e-mail] as well as Psychology Today and the American Brain foundation, who have all, as well as other places, looked into that weird question, like, you were talking about, like, why would anybody pay to go into a truly terrifying haunted house or a truly terrifying movie?

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

And, like, yeah, we all know anecdotally or personally why, but, like, if you step back and look at it from, you know, a rational standpoint, it makes zero sense whatsoever. Like, we're purposefully stimulating what's meant to be, like, an unpleasant experience, unpleasant response in ourselves.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, for sure. You know, we'll get into that in a second. We need to sort of delineate, though, like, what we're talking about. We did an episode on Fear a while back. It was a long time ago. I think it was a pretty good one. If I remember correctly. But we're not talking about anxiety. Like, there's anxiety and there's fear. Anxiety is the stuff that keeps you up at night. Like existential threats or am I getting old? Or is our country being ruined? Or is there a looming war coming to our country? Like things that haven't happened yet that you're truly upset and anxious about is not the same thing as fear of something that is like somebody jumping out and saying boo. Something that happens right in front of your face.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Exactly right. So you got that. And fear is about something jumping out right in front of your face. It's about like an immediate threat to your well being, maybe your life. And it triggers the fight or flight response.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, for sure.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

So a little more about that. When you have the fight or flight response, your pulse increases, your blood pressure increases, you just get ready to run or fly, which is the only time you can fly is when you're scared.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

That's right. There have been people that research this stuff. There's a book that we want to shout out called Scream. Scream with an exclamation point from Margie Kee and her colleague Dr. Greg Siegel, who is director for the cognitive neuroscience program at University of Pittsburgh. But their description of what we're talking about, like paying to go to a haunted house or something or a really scary movie, is voluntary engagement with negative high arousal stimuli. So in other words, it's like, yeah, I'll give you my hard earned dollars to go into Netherworld in October. And because the thrill of getting the doo doo scared out of me is like, I enjoy that experience.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yes. So, yeah, that's a great, great term for it. I say we take a little break, Chuck, and then we come back and we go step by step how this whole thing goes for us.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, let's do it.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Okay.

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[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Okay, Chuck, So we're talking about fun scary, not fun anxiety. I don't think there is such a thing really, as fun anxiety. No, I mean, I guess like an existential or elevated horror movie like, that develops a sense of dread.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, okay.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

But it so rarely pays off in a good way. It's. Yeah, I don't know that there's a good version of it. So we're talking.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, I think I agree.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Like scary the fun version. Right. And one of the main reasons why we do this, it turns out, is because we feel a sense of mastery over this thing that overwhelms us. Because we're choosing to do this. That's step one. We're choosing to experience this scary thing and by. By saying, like, I'm choosing to do this. Although, of course, you don't do this step by step. It just kind of happens. You're. You're saying, like, I'm in control, I'm in charge. Yeah. I'm going in this scary haunted house. But it's on the premise that I'm not actually going to be stabbed by this green guy. He's just going to come up like he. He's about to stab me, but he's not going to follow through. Some part of me knows that.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, I mean, that's always in the back of your head when you walk into a situation like that. You're like, I'm gonna be fine. It's not like the thrill that you get when somebody jumps out of the shadows with a gun to mug you. Not what we're talking about. So that's the first step, is you're acknowledging that you're choosing to do this head on so you've got some mastery. And then the scare happens, whatever that might be, whether it's a movie or, you know, a haunted house. I'm trying to. Those seem like the obvious ones. I'm trying to think of other ways, I guess maybe a scary roller coaster or something. If that's a big fear, sure. Yeah. So that's when the fight or flight kicks in and you are just flooded with, you know, some really eventually feel good stuff. That dopamine and oxytocin and endorphins start firing and our heart rate increases, obviously, and our breathing and our blood pressure and everything. So that's like an exhilarating experience, like, biologically for your body.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Right. So, yes, like, you're amped, I guess, is the way to put it, you know?

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. What do the kids say these days today?

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Amped Diggity toilet.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Skivity toilet. By the way, I like diggity toilet. Let's start a new thing.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

All right.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Boy, that 6, 7 thing went away, like, quicker than I've ever seen anything go away.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

I was reading a book last yesterday. It was Crime and Punishment. And I'm not just saying this just to show everybody I'm reading Crime and Punishment, but somebody mentioned something being like sixes and sevens. And I couldn't tell from the context what they were talking about still. I think it was kind of positive or something like that. But I was like, is that where that came from originally or is it just coincidence?

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

That was coincidence because they. Coincidence because they know where it came from. Which I won't bore you to tell you that.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Well, it was a basketball player being interviewed. But where did he get it?

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. Oh, I think it just came out of nowhere, and it just caught on. But my whole point was that thing went away, like, in a matter of weeks. I think as soon as all the parents started doing it, every small child. Like, I'm talking. People my daughter's age and younger were like, no, like, I did it one time. She was like, ugh, no one does that.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. I feel like that's a valuable lesson. If we are ever all annoyed by something that the younger generation is saying, we just start saying it ourselves. Adopted ourselves for a week.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, for sure. I love it. That's a good. We should test that out when the next stupid thing comes along.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Okay, you got it.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

All right, so where were we? Fight or flight? Yes.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. So we're in fight or flight mode. I feel bad for the poor person who we're describing because they've been stuck in fight or flight mode the whole time we were talking about skinny toilets. But we're back, person, so don't worry, because now your body, your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in, is like, cool out, everybody. Let's just mellow out. Nothing actually happened. The threat is gone, and you can just feel great. You can feel relaxed. You can feel maybe even a sense of giddiness, you know, because you're experiencing something that you still. It's. It's a. It's a transition between still having your fight or flight response going and the parasympathetic thing starting to kick in and take over. And while they're kind of. Those levels are adjusting. It's a very specific, unique, fun kind of feeling.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, for sure. And you can see that step literally coinciding with the next benefit, rather, which is, like, you know, you're almost always doing this with, like, friends and family or something. Like, you're out to have a good time with a group maybe or a small group. So you're building, like, a bond of an experience that was scary that you shared together. And, like, you see it when people are exiting netherworld or when they're coming off of that roller coaster. This almost euphoria of the shared experience that everyone has. And you're all talking about it like, oh, my God, that one part, that one room where the guy had the chainsaw and I saw, like, on your face, like you were about to do in your pants. And it's like. It's exhilarating. It's like a high that you can see everyone, like, Reliving the experience together in this bond that they created. That's just like super fun.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, it is. Because, I mean, you mentioned oxytocin being released. That would explain that bonding, you know?

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, for sure.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

And also why sometimes you'll like, press your face into the chest of whoever

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

you're with, hopefully the person that you're with.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Right.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Sometimes those places are dark.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

For sure.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

You don't want to do that to a perfect stranger.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

No. You're like, oh, you smell like onions. You're not my friend.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

My friend smells like cheese. So.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah. Foot cheese.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Oh, God.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

So there's that feeling of catharsis. There's another, I think, great point too, in addition to that whole feeling of catharsis that comes from going through that rigmarole and that is like you're in a. That scary place that you put yourself in on purpose. Right. The voluntary engagement with negative high arousal stimuli. It's a place where it's socially acceptable to do something like scream your head off and just let out stress. And that's a huge function that those play as well, that scaring ourselves play as well. Especially say like a roller coaster.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, for sure. Like, you know, there's primal scream therapy, but a lot of people would say like, oh, that seems pretty weird, but that same person might go to a haunted house and scream their head off because it's like a socially acceptable thing to do. And if you're someone who is, maybe you have like real life anxiety or maybe you work in a place or in a situation in your life where you always have to maintain like a very high level of decorum and, you know, go to Netherworld. They should sponsor this thing, by the way.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

I think so too. That's a great idea.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

We should re release this in October, see if we can get Netherworld on board. I don't go to those. Do you go to those?

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

No, they're too scary for me.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, I mean, I haven't been to a real haunted house like that, I don't think ever. I think the last haunted house I went to was in la. Like these people got together and did these really, really high quality ones in the neighborhood a couple over. But I'd never paid to go into like the truly horrifying ones.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

I haven't either, but it's not because I'm too scared. I was kidding about that.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Why is it, you know, walk around in the dark with a bunch of strangers that might put their head in your chest?

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

I don't. I don't know there's one either.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Let's go to one this year.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Okay. There's one here, if you're willing to come down. Some Universal Horror Nights. I think it's supposed to be really good.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Is Yumi into that kind of thing?

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

No, no. She doesn't like being scared.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Neither is Emily. All right. They can wait outside while we go through.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yes, that's fine. They'll have fun doing that.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, totally.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

They'll drink lemonade out of those big, giant novelty plastic limans.

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, exactly.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

I guess that's it for short stuff, huh?

[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah, I think that means we're out.

[Josh (Podcast Co-host)]

Yeah.

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[Chuck (Podcast Co-host)]

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