Why haunted houses

Unfortunately, most haunted houses make for a bad combination of very low prospect for us, and very high refuge for the creepy-crawly things that are lying in wait to get us. Research has confirmed that people experience such environments as unsafe and dangerous. Such places also lack what environmental psychologists refer to as legibility. Legibility reflects the ease with which a place can be recognized, organized into a pattern and recalled—in other words, a place that we can wander around in without getting lost.

Thus, the typical haunted house is large, dark, surrounded by overgrown vegetation, and full of surprising architectural features such as secret rooms and closets under staircases.

Attics and basements are also must-have items, and, of course, spider webs, bats, rats, and insects make nice accessories. It usually involves a story about a grisly death or accident. There may even be a history of suicide and murder. Stimuli such as moldy odors, antiquated Victorian or Gothic architecture, wood interiors and old portraits on the wall reinforce an ambiance of great age. Assuming that the house is no longer occupied, signs of life suddenly interrupted and frozen in time only amplify the fear factor.

For example, remnants of a half-eaten meal on a kitchen table or clothing laid out on a bed waiting for a homeowner who has apparently vanished without warning create a frightening ambiguity about what may have taken place in the house.

There are bonus points awarded if the house is conveniently located next to or on top of an old cemetery or burial ground! Individuals who believe in paranormal phenomena and have expectations that creepy things might actually be present in such a place are more likely to engage in the sort of top-down, cognitive processing that induces fear. Ultimately, whether or not a house is perceived as haunted obviously depends upon something other than the physical features of the house.

Just as important are the inherent beliefs of the person exploring the house. Why are we afraid of clowns? The views expressed are those of the author s and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

You can follow AiP on Facebook. Follow Krystal D'Costa on Twitter. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. And critics appeared to have agreed: James Lane said the house looked ghostly and murderous 2. Helen Appleton Reed spoke of a sense of pervasive evil and corruption tied to the house 2. Elisabeth Luth Cary felt that it had "come alive" 2. Burns writes: "the Victorian house became home to psychological demons.

Citations: Burns : 4 Burns : 6 Burns : -- You might be interested in: Sarah Burns has written and spoken extensively about this topic. Image Credit: Forsaken Fotos. Load comments. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Read More Previous. Support science journalism. In the aftermath of their deaths, attractions were shut down , and politicians enacted stronger safety regulations.

Volunteer organizations struggled to compete against new competition under tougher rules. Soon, many were forced out of business. It was a watershed moment for the industry, says Kirchner: "The Jaycees got pushed out because their haunted houses were fairly basic.

It was based on the premise that people would volunteer, but when you have people opening big haunted houses with lots of advertising, that's hard," he says. During the next two decades, the number of professional haunted houses erupted.

Kirchner estimates that roughly 2, of them operated nationwide last year. These days, haunted houses are no longer just about creepy characters and hyper-realistic horror. Instead, the industry has flocked to all sorts of new, extreme frights: zombie runs , escape games , and experiences seemingly designed to traumatize. How long will these successes last?

Can the haunted house last another half-century? And if it does, what will it look like? Kirchner doubts that the haunted house is here to stay. Chris Heller is the assistant digital editor, humanities, for Smithsonian. A Rasch hierarchy of haunt and poltergeist experiences. Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Cross-examining the case for precognition: commentary on Mossbridge and Radin Quantifying the phenomenology of ghostly episodes: Part II — a Rasch model of spontaneous accounts.

Quantifying the phenomenology of ghostly episodes: Part I — Need for a standard operationalization. Perceptual-personality characteristics associated with naturalistic haunt experiences. Hunter, J. United Kingdom: August Night Books. Jackson, D. Power analysis for random-effects meta-analysis. Synthesis Methods 8, — Jawer, M. Environmental sensitivity: inquiry into a possible link with apparitional experience. The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion. The enactive approach to architectural experience: a neurophysiological perspective on embodiment, motivation, and affordances.

Joines, W. Electromagnetic emission from humans during focused intent. Jung, C. Kane, M. Got a Ghost? Break out the Disinfectant. Mass Live. Kinsella, M. Kumar, V. Houran and R. Lange, R.

Fortean phenomena on film: evidence or artifact? The role of fear in delusions of the paranormal. Nonlinear Dyn. Life Sci. Freiburg: IGPP. Langston, W. Shadow walking: will a ghost walk tour affect belief in ghosts? Larsson, M. Reply to M. Persinger and S. Laythe, B. Letter to the Editor. Concomitant object movements and EMF-spikes at a purported haunt. A split-sample psychometric study of haunters. A critical test of the EMF-paranormal phenomena theory: evidence from a haunted site without electricity-generating fields.

Lecouteux, C. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions. Leventhall, G. Lidov, A. Moscow: Progress-Tradition. Lipka, M. Live Science Loiselle, A. Lyon, J. The solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Maddern, J. Editorial: spectro-geographies. Maher, M. Quantitative investigation of the General Wayne Inn. Mamiya, Y. The pareidolia test: a simple neuropsychological test measuring visual hallucination-like illusions. Manning, P. Blank and L. Massullo, B. Wayne, NJ: Career Press.

The Earliest Haunted House. Mayer, G. A remarkable photographic anomaly and the social dynamics of its interpretation. McAndrew, F. The Conversation. The psychology, geography, and architecture of horror: how places creep us out. On the nature of creepiness.

New Ideas Psychol. McClenon, J. Merali, Z. Do we live in the Matrix? Magazine 34, 24— Moore, D. Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal. Moreman, C. Moskowitz, C. Are We Living in a Computer Simulation? Murray, J. Myers, J. The monster mind. Psychologist 28, — Nees, M.

Auditory pareidolia: effects of contextual priming on perceptions of purportedly paranormal and ambiguous auditory stimuli. Nickell, J. Catching ghosts. Skeptical Briefs, New York, NY: Prometheus. Psychological studies in nonionizing electromagnetic energy research. Osis, K. New equipment for ASPR research on apparitions. ASPR Newslett. Owen, A. Can we Explain the Poltergeist?.

New York, NY: Garrett. Paneth, N. Neurobehavioral effects of power-frequency electromagnetic fields. Health Perspect. Parra, A. Perceptual-personality variables associated with entity encounter experiences. Parsons, S. Infrasound and the paranormal. Ghostology: The Art of the Ghosthunter. Hove: White Crow Books. Acoustic research infrasound detector. Partos, T. Persinger, M. New York, NY: M. Information Corporation. Geophysical variables and behavior: XXII. The tectonogenic strain continuum of unusual events.

Skills 60, 59— Geopsychology and geopsychopathology: mental processes and disorders associated with geochemical and geophysical factors. Experientia 43, 92— Increased geomagnetic activity and the occurrence of bereavement hallucinations: evidence for melatonin-mediated microseizuring in the temporal lobe? The neuropsychiatry of paranormal experiences. Neuropsychiatry Clin. The sensed presence within experimental settings: implications for the male and female concept of self.

Infrasound, human health, and adaptation: an integrative overview of recondite hazards in a complex environment. Hazards 70, — Experimental facilitation of the sensed presence: possible intercalation between the hemispheres induced by complex magnetic fields.

Experiences of spiritual visitation and impregnation: potential induction by frequency-modulated transients from an adjacent clock. Skills 92, 35— A response to Granqvist et al. Geophysical variables and behavior: CIV. Power frequency magnetic field transients 5 microTesla and reports of haunt experiences within an electronically dense house. Differential entrainment of electroencephalographic activity by weak complex electromagnetic fields. Geomagnetic factors in subjective telepathic, precognitive, and postmortem experiences.

Skills 90, — Pew Research Center Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Pharino, C. Potts, J. Houran Lanham: Scarecrow Press , — Purwanto, B.

Reuters, Health News. Radford, B. Corrales, NM: Rhombus Publishing. Radin, D. Are phantasms fact or fantasy? A preliminary investigation of apparitions evoked in the laboratory. Ralphs, J. Magnetic anomalies and the paranormal.

Reiter, R. A review of neuroendocrine and neurochemical changes associated with static and extremely low frequency electromagnetic field exposure. Roll, W. Romer, C. Re-Investigating Un-Haunted Houses. Root, S. Mirror gazing for cultural bereavement: a mixed-methods study into the impact of a restricted sensory environment meditation process psychomanteum on culture shock in expatriates.

Schienle, A. Biological effects of very low frequency VLF atmospherics in humans: a review. Schmeidler, G. Schwartz, G. A conventional optical explanation. Seamon, D. Manzo and P. Sharpe, D. Of apples and oranges, file drawers and garbage: why validity issues in meta-analysis will not go away. Sher, L. The effects of natural and man-made electromagnetic fields on mood and behavior: the role of sleep disturbances. Shoemaker, R. Sick building syndrome SBS and exposure to water-damaged buildings: time series study, clinical trial and mechanisms.