Hey, remember that fun piece on the scariest movies according to science? Well, it turns out nobody disagrees with science more than science. This time, the folks at the UK broadband price comparison tool BroadbandChoices threw their nerd hat in the ring with an experiment of their own, and the results are… more movies.
Similar to the previous test, the number crunchers monitored the heart rates of 50 people as they watched over 100 hours of horror films. This particular experiment, adorably dubbed the “Science of Scare Project,” goes beyond the 10 movie list of its peer, instead ranking a whopping 35 separate titles. Thoughts and prayers go out to the 50 courageous test subject, who nobly sacrificed their sleep for the foreseeable future in order to make a neat list.
First off, there are some understandable similarities between the two finished rankings. Hereditary, Insidious, The Babadook, The Descent, and The Conjuring 2 all broke the top 10 of both lists. Interestingly, however, Us and Saw (which both placed in the previous project’s 10 scariest films) were nowhere to be found in the Science of Scare Project’s much wider 35 space bracket. Aside from its similarities, the latter experiment also included The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity, It Follows, and The Visit, while topping the whole list off with 2012’s Sinister.
Contrary to the first test from GIGA Calculator, which saw 2018’s Hereditary take the top spot with an average heart rate of 115 BPM, this project gave that honor to Sinister and its 86 BPM average. The difference in heart rate between the two tests is surprising, though the Science of Scare Project appears to go more in depth with its analysis than its predecessor. For example, jump scares get their time to shine this time around, with special mention going to Insidious, Sinister, The Exorcist 3 (which interestingly did not appear on the list otherwise), The Conjuring, and The Descent for “biggest jump scares by heart rate.”
So why, aside from the few similar entries, are the two lists so different? Well, naturally, a sample size of 50 people will never be enough to get a perfectly accurate measure of the population as a whole. But there’s also the matter of the sheer number of films. One would expect that, after watching a certain number of scary movies, the heart rate increase will begin to have diminishing returns, resulting in lower peaks and skewing the results in favor of the films watched earlier in the viewing session. On top of all that, the Science of Scare Project never specified whether or not the test subjects had seen any of the films beforehand, unlike the other test which deliberately chose participants who hadn’t seen any of the horror flicks they would be watching. On the other hand, “scary” is subjective, and it’s difficult to compile any single, definitive list of such things. So perhaps it’s better to have multiple versions.
Regardless of methods, one thing’s for sure. Now there are two fun studies giving horror fans an excellent selection of frightful features to enjoy this Halloween season. So spin around, pick one, and let the good times roll. Or just watch them all. It’s not like there’s anything better to occupy free time here in 2020.
Source: Forbes
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