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

0:00Josh Clark:This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Introducing the all-new Mazda CX-5. Featuring more connection. Hey, Google, where's the nearest Pilates class? Safety that has your back. More discovery on the scenic routes. More passion in the details. And more control in changing weather. The all-new Mazda CX-5. More to move every side of you. See it in five films at mazdausa.com slash fivesides. Google is a trademark of Google LLC. Sequences shortened and simulated.

0:34Chuck Bryant:All cat parents understand the feeling of being totally ignored by your cat. And often thinking, does my cat even love me? There's only one solution to solve that. Shiba. Feed your cat Shiba and go from feeling ignored to truly adored in 12 days guaranteed or your money back. Shiba has a menu of products, appetizers, entrees, treats, and even a kitten's menu. So Shiba has a product for even the pickiest eater. like Sheba puree made with bone broth, a smooth and creamy texture that cats love, or Sheba grilled protein rich formula made with real chicken and seafood. To learn more, check out Sheba.com.

1:08Chuck Bryant:Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, sitting in for a day. 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? Yeah.

1:26Josh Clark:Here, scare me real quick. Do something. Let's do a little exercise.

1:31Chuck Bryant:You're starting to look old.

1:34Josh Clark:No, no, no. Okay. Really scare me. Say boo or something.

1:36Chuck Bryant:Oh, okay. That's going to scare you more?

1:39Josh Clark:Yeah, yeah. Okay, boo. Oh, my God. Oh, boy. As it turns out, that was really exhilarating, and I feel great now.

1:46Chuck Bryant:Yeah, well, you overcame a fear, a real threat.

1:50Josh Clark:Yeah, it is an interesting question, though, and thanks to our old friends at HowStuffWorks.com 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?

2:10Chuck Bryant: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.

2:29Josh Clark: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 as fear of something that is like somebody jumping out and saying boo, something that happens right in front of your face.

3:10Chuck Bryant: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.

3:27Josh Clark:Yeah, for sure.

3:29Chuck Bryant: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.

3:45Josh Clark: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 Key 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 because the thrill of getting the doo-doo scared out of me is like I enjoy that experience.

4:30Chuck Bryant: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.

4:40Josh Clark:Yeah, let's do it.

4:41Chuck Bryant:Okay.

5:17Josh Clark:We'll be right back. patio lighting, rugs, decor. It is your one-stop shop for home.

5:22Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I mean, it's getting nice out, so it's time to think about living outdoors for the next few months. And Wayfair knows that outdoor furniture, it's heavy, it's intimidating to assemble. So Wayfair has stepped in and said, we're going to handle the hard part so you don't have to.

5:35Josh Clark:That's right. You can shop Wayfair verified your shortcut to the good stuff. That means their team of product specialists are going to vet everything by hand using a 10-point inspection, testing things like, oh, I don't of quality materials, functionality, and features, and even how long it takes to build that piece of furniture. And the overall experience saved time, reduced hassle, and improved convenience.

5:53Chuck Bryant:Petio season is here, and these deals won't last. So head to Wayfair.com right now to get your outdoor space ready for way less. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com.

6:05Josh Clark:Wayfair, every style, every home.

6:10Chuck Bryant:In business, there's no room for guesswork. Every shipment matters. Every deadline counts. When you're trying to keep operations running smoothly, the last thing you need is uncertainty.

6:20Josh Clark:That's right. That's why reliability is the core of USPS Ground Advantage. From the moment your package is first scanned in, it moves through a secure nationwide network, aiding in a timely and accurate delivery.

6:31Chuck Bryant:You get near real-time tracking so you can keep up with your shipments. And with affordable upfront pricing, there are no hidden fees or surprise surcharges to throw off your cost sheets.

6:42Josh Clark:That's right. And that all adds up to predictable deliveries that you can depend on. Because knowing your logistics are handled lets you focus on everything else. Your customers, your team, and the future that you're building. Just visit usps.com slash ground advantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS Ground Advantage.

7:17Chuck Bryant: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, definitely not. I mean, I guess like an existential or elevated horror movie, like that develops a sense of dread. Yeah, okay. 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 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.

7:58Chuck Bryant:And 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 saying, like, I'm in control. I'm in charge. Yeah, I'm going into this scary haunted house. But it's on the premise that I'm not actually going to be stabbed by the screen guy. He's just going to come up like he's about to stab me, but he's not going to follow through. Some part of me knows that.

8:21Josh Clark: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 going to be fine. Uh, it's not like the thrill that you get when somebody jumps out of the shadows to, you know, with a gun to mug you, uh, not what we're talking about. So that, that's the first step is you're like acknowledging that you're choosing to do this head on. So you've got some mastery and then 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 rollercoaster or something, if that's a big fear.

8:54Josh Clark:Yeah. Uh, 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, our heart rate increases obviously in our breathing and our blood pressure and everything. So that's like a, an exhilarating experience, like biologically for your body.

9:16Chuck Bryant:Right. Um, so yes, like you're, you're amped, I guess is the way to put it, you know? Yeah.

9:23Josh Clark:What do the kids say these days today?

9:26Chuck Bryant:Diggity toilet.

9:30Josh Clark:Skivity toilet, by the way.

9:32Chuck Bryant:Sure, sure.

9:33Josh Clark:I like diggity toilet. Let's start a new thing. All right. Boy, that 6-7 thing went away like quicker than I've ever seen anything go away.

9:41Chuck Bryant:I was reading a book 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 that was coincidence

10:06Josh Clark:because they coincidence because they know where it came from uh which i want for you to tell you