I blame biology
I'm a big fan of thrillers. I'm not into gore, but I like scary. This has made all my (ex)boyfriends laugh at me, because while I like them, I go through the roof whenever one of these saw-it-coming-miles-away startle moments come up. And I hide when there's gore. The men can stop laughing now though, because it's not my fault - it's just biology!
Your basic emotions are scared and angry - flight or fight, withdraw or approach. The first is controlled by a hormone called cortisol. If your cortisol levels are high you're stressed and scared, and unlikely to approach things that you don't know for a fact are safe. Anger, on the other hand, is controlled by testosteron. That's right - anger is controlled by what is best known as "the male sex hormone", which men have about 5 to 10 times as much of as women. So that automatically puts men at an advantage when it comes to not being scared - they always have so much angry hormone in them, the scared hormone gets less of a chance.
Now while you mostly hear that the female system runs on progesteron and estrogen, on an emotional level, the hormone with the most influence in the female system is really oxytocin. When you're talking physical functions, it kickstarts labor and breastfeeding. Emotionally, it helps promote bonding (want an excuse for lots of good sex? It's good for your relationship: oxytocin is released after orgasm, making you bond with your partner more strongly) and it helps with social recognition. That is, people with high levels of oxytocin (i.e. women!) are better at recognizing facial expression and other signs of emotion in people around them.
See how my system cheats me? Lower levels of testosteron mean I get scared more easily than my boyfriend anyways, and then the higher levels of oxytocin mean that (assuming the actors are doing their job right!) I'm getting more and stronger "danger!" signals from the people in the movie, so I get more reason to be scared.
So really, there are two ways to twist this: 1) I'm being cheated by my system and it's not my fault scary movies scare the hell out of me or 2) *I* don't have a problem! It's the men that are overly aggressive and blind to other people's emotions! Either way, it clearly isn't my fault.
Your basic emotions are scared and angry - flight or fight, withdraw or approach. The first is controlled by a hormone called cortisol. If your cortisol levels are high you're stressed and scared, and unlikely to approach things that you don't know for a fact are safe. Anger, on the other hand, is controlled by testosteron. That's right - anger is controlled by what is best known as "the male sex hormone", which men have about 5 to 10 times as much of as women. So that automatically puts men at an advantage when it comes to not being scared - they always have so much angry hormone in them, the scared hormone gets less of a chance.
Now while you mostly hear that the female system runs on progesteron and estrogen, on an emotional level, the hormone with the most influence in the female system is really oxytocin. When you're talking physical functions, it kickstarts labor and breastfeeding. Emotionally, it helps promote bonding (want an excuse for lots of good sex? It's good for your relationship: oxytocin is released after orgasm, making you bond with your partner more strongly) and it helps with social recognition. That is, people with high levels of oxytocin (i.e. women!) are better at recognizing facial expression and other signs of emotion in people around them.
See how my system cheats me? Lower levels of testosteron mean I get scared more easily than my boyfriend anyways, and then the higher levels of oxytocin mean that (assuming the actors are doing their job right!) I'm getting more and stronger "danger!" signals from the people in the movie, so I get more reason to be scared.
So really, there are two ways to twist this: 1) I'm being cheated by my system and it's not my fault scary movies scare the hell out of me or 2) *I* don't have a problem! It's the men that are overly aggressive and blind to other people's emotions! Either way, it clearly isn't my fault.
posted by Geerte at 4:48 PM
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