![]() ![]() Our daily physical surroundings play an important role in creating order, meaning, and stability in our lives, and the cultural rituals that make up the very fabric of social and religious life have historically been inseparable from the physical spaces in which they transpire (Smith 1987 Martin 2014). Scholars in a range of academic disciplines including philosophy (Bachelard 1964), geography (Tuan 1974, 1977), and psychology (Sommer 1969 Proshansky, Fabian, and Kaminoff 1983) have long recognized the importance of “place” in human experience. Keywords: horror, architecture, ghosts, haunted houses, paranormal experiences, environmental psychology, evolutionary psychology This article applies McAndrew and Koehnke’s (2016) theory of creepiness to the study of classic horror settings and explores the role played by architecture, isolation, association with death, and other environmental qualities in the experience of creepiness and dread. Places that contain a bad mix of these features induce unpleasant feelings of dread and fear, and therefore have become important ingredients of the settings for horror fiction and films. Natural selection has favored individuals who gravitated toward environments containing the “right” physical and psychological features and avoided those which posed a threat. Why do some types of settings and some combinations of sensory information induce a sense of dread in humans? This article brings empirical evidence from psychological research to bear on the experience of horror, and explains why the tried-and-true horror devices intuitively employed by writers and filmmakers work so well. The Psychology, Geography, and Architecture of Horror: How Places Creep Us Out Francis T. The difference in sea level can reach up to 20 inches over a distance of just a few miles, creating the powerful currents and eddies that make up a maelstrom.This is an Open Access article from ESIC Vol. According to a 1997 study, the Moskstraumen owes its existence to enormous tidal differences between the mainland and the Lofoten island chain. So what's the explanation for the area's treacherous waters? It's not divine forces or some hole in the ocean floor. Although there's no official record of its death toll, the maelstrom is known to be extremely dangerous, especially for small boats that are easily caught in its powerful currents. Found off the coast of Norway, the maelstrom is one of the strongest series of currents and whirlpools in the world according to a 16th century bishop, it's stronger than the famous Sicilian whirlpool Charybdis. Here are eight other creepy phenomena with totally reasonable explanations.Īnything that inspires Edgar Allen Poe ("A Descent into the Maelstrom") and Jules Verne ("Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea") is bound to be terrifying, and the Moskstraumen delivers. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of information that lets me sleep at night. Once the iron-rich water is exposed to oxygen in the air, it turns red, producing what appears to be a waterfall of blood. Recently, they were even able to determine where all that iron comes from: a salty lake trapped beneath the glacier for nearly a million years. First discovered in 1911, it looks like something out of an unsubtle horror movie, but within a few decades, scientists figured out that the water's macabre color comes from iron oxide. Take the apparently-bloody waterfall (appropriately named Blood Falls) I mentioned above. ![]() The good news is that while the following phenomena are unsettling at best, they also have totally rational explanations. Sure, we might have built concrete jungles and sent people to the moon, but for every landmark achievement, the world has some creepy natural phenomena up its sleeve to put us in our place - and give us nightmares, because seriously? A waterfall of blood (well, rust-colored water) oozing out of a glacier in Antarctica? A whirlpool so vast and deadly it terrified Edgar Allen Poe into writing a story about it? You can't tell me this stuff doesn't make you want to live in a nice, secure room safe from Mother Nature's sadistic streak. Clearly, those people aren't paying attention. Some people might think humans have mastered the Earth. ![]()
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