The Science of Fear and Laughter

As Halloween approaches, students across the University of Central Oklahoma are planning costumes, parties, and fall festivities. Every October, haunted houses and horror movies draw crowds eager to be terrified, yet most visitors leave laughing.

A recent study from researchers at Aarhus University explores why fear and humor, two emotions that seem like opposites, are actually deeply connected.

According to Marc Hye-Knudsen and colleagues at the university’s Recreational Fear Lab, both fear and laughter are rooted in our evolutionary history. The team found that the two emotions often trigger the same brain regions. These regions include the amygdala and periaqueductal gray. Both regions are areas tied to survival instincts, but produce opposing effects.

“Fear floods the bloodstream with adrenaline and cortisol,” they wrote, while “humorous amusement involves soothing endogenous opioids” that calm the body after stress.

The researchers describe humor as a form of cognitive play. This is a way the human brain safely explores danger. In early childhood, this begins with simple games like peekaboo, where a baby’s momentary fear of disappearance turns into delighted laughter once they realize there’s no real threat.

That shift, the authors explain, teaches the brain how to transform a “violation” into something “benign,” the same pattern adults experience when they laugh at a jump scare in a horror film.

“Approaching the things that scare us through humor can help us transform them into opportunities for playful recreational fear,” the study states.

In other words, laughter acts as a release valve. When people’s bodies go from a fearful jolt to a giggle, they are chemically countering stress and reminding themselves they are safe.

The research team even recorded haunted-house guests’ reactions. After being startled by a jump scare, people smiled or laughed more than 70% of the time. This confirmed what many horror fans already know: that being scared can be fun. Humor resets the nervous system, making the next scare more enjoyable.

In the end, the study argues that fear and humor are not enemies but partners in the same psychological dance. When people laugh after screaming, they are completing an ancient cycle of stress and relief.

For information, the full article and PDF can be found on the National Institutes of Health Website (NIH).