My research is concerned with the interdisciplinary study of frightening entertainment. I am interested in integrating horror study with the natural and social sciences, in particular, human behavioural biology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology. See also 2017 TEDx talk "Lessons from a terrified horror researcher": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6St5R2bYMOY.
What makes some bad films "so-bad-they're-good"? We explain the paradoxical appeal of trash films... more What makes some bad films "so-bad-they're-good"? We explain the paradoxical appeal of trash films with reference to Wiseau's 2003 cult classic The Room and argue, from the perspective of cognitive film theory, that the film's obtrusive violations of Classical Hollywood conventions deny viewers narrative absorption but allows them to derive from those very violations a humorous pleasure that is often social in nature.
Why would anyone want to play a game designed to scare them? We argue that an alliance between ev... more Why would anyone want to play a game designed to scare them? We argue that an alliance between evolutionary theory and game studies can shed light on the forms and psychological functions of horror video games. Horror games invite players to simulate prototypical fear scenarios of uncertainty and danger. These scenarios challenge players to adaptively assess and negotiate their dangers. While horror games thereby instil negative emotion, they also entice players with stimulating challenges of fearful coping. Players who brave these challenges expand their emotional and behavioural repertoire and experience a sense of mastery, explaining the genre’s paradoxical appeal. We end by illustrating our evolutionary approach through an in-depth analysis of Playdead’s puzzle-horror game Limbo.
... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary E... more ... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Studies, Department of Culture and ... A survey has revealed that 41% of the Danish population thinks that Christian schools should be allowed to teach the words of the ...
How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into... more How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into the social sciences and humanities? Are the " science wars " over? Or do whole blocs of disciplines face off over an unbridgeable epistemic gap? To answer questions like these, contributors to top journals in 22 disciplines were surveyed on their beliefs about human nature, culture, and science. More than 600 respondents completed the survey. Scoring patterns divided into two main sets of disciplines. Genetic influences were emphasized in the evolutionary social sciences, evolutionary humanities, psychology, empirical study of the arts, philosophy, economics, and political science. Environmental influences were emphasized in most of the humanities disciplines and in anthropology, sociology, education, and women's or gender studies. Confidence in scientific explanation correlated positively with emphasizing genetic influences on behavior, and negatively with emphasizing environmental influences. Knowing the current actual landscape of belief should help scholars avoid sterile debates and ease the way toward fruitful collaborations with neighboring disciplines.
Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interact... more Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. From the bi-ocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted in the biological necessities of the human life cycle: specifically human forms of birth, growth, survival, mating, parent-ing, and sociality. Conversely, from the biocultural perspective, human biological processes are constrained, organized, and developed by culture, which includes technology , culturally specific socioeconomic and political structures, religious and ideological beliefs, and artistic practices such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling. Establishing biocultural theory as a program that self-consciously encompasses the different particular forms of human evolutionary research could help scholars and scientists envision their own specialized areas of research as contributions to a coherent , collective research program. This article argues that a mature biocultural paradigm needs to be informed by at least 7 major research clusters: (a) gene-culture coevolution; (b) human life history theory; (c) evolutionary social psychology; (d) anthropological research on contemporary hunter-gatherers; (e) biocultural socioeconomic and political history; (f) evolutionary aesthetics; and (g) biocultural research in the humanities (religions, ideologies, the history of ideas, and the arts). This article explains the way these research clusters are integrated in biocultural theory, evaluates the level of development in each cluster, and locates current biocultural theory within the historical trajectory of the social sciences and the humanities.
Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen is graduate student at the School of Communication and Culture , Aar... more Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen is graduate student at the School of Communication and Culture , Aarhus University. His research covers the agonistic structure of popular culture and its adaptive roots. He has published on the psychology of pop-cultural villains in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences. Abstract In response to the crisis in the humanities, some scholars have proposed consilience as a solution. They argue that humanists should build on recent findings in the sciences of mind, including cogni-tive and evolutionary psychology. We discuss the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach, illustrating our discussion with an analysis of the horror video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. We argue that recent theoretical and empirical developments in the evolutionary social sciences can make sense of how and why horror games so effectively foster immersion and predictable psycho-physiological responses. They target evolved survival mechanisms and are structured to reward vigilance and persistence in the face of fear-and anxiety-provoking stimuli. Finally, we discuss and refute a number of common criticisms of the consilient approach.
... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary E... more ... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Studies, Department of Culture and ... A survey has revealed that 41% of the Danish population thinks that Christian schools should be allowed to teach the words of the ...
Most of us can probably agree that in the real world, there are no drooling monsters, no rotting ... more Most of us can probably agree that in the real world, there are no drooling monsters, no rotting zombies, no bloodthirsty vampires, and no moaning ghosts. Yet such outlandish ideas capture our attention and figure prominently in popular culture. The horror genre—a natural home for scary monsters—is more in vogue than ever, but also more paradoxical than ever. People in modern societies have little reason to fear being attacked by big terrestrial predators or dangerous reptiles, let alone supernatural monsters. Why, then, do they flock to be scared and thrilled by imaginary monsters in fiction and interactive entertainment? I argue that an evolutionary perspective is uniquely equipped to explain the form, the function, and the widespread appeal of horror entertainment. The emotions elicited by horror media are real emotions, and the best currently available conceptual framework for understanding human emotion comes from evolutionary psychology. Hence, an evolutionary perspective can explain why horror entertainment across media is structured in predictable ways to elicit predictable reactions in its audience. Drawing on illustrative examples from cinema, literature, and computer games, I make the case that an understanding of human phylogeny, in particular the evolution and design specifications of human precautionary cognitive architecture, crucially contributes to a comprehensive, vertically integrated explanation for the persistence of fear-inducing media presentations.
The vampire apocalypse is a fairly unlikely event, but it makes for great storytelling. Richard M... more The vampire apocalypse is a fairly unlikely event, but it makes for great storytelling. Richard Matheson's 1954 I Am Legend is a milestone in modern Gothic literature; it tells the bleak story of Robert Neville, sole survivor of a vampire plague. I employ the concepts of evolved human nature, cultural ecology, and authorial identity as my main analytical tools for understanding the appeal, the power, and the significance of Matheson's classic novel, which is basically an extrapolation on peculiar yet common anxieties and a meditation on what happens when basic adaptive needs are frustrated.
Horror fiction is a thriving industry. Many consumers pay hard-earned money to be scared witless ... more Horror fiction is a thriving industry. Many consumers pay hard-earned money to be scared witless by films, books, and computer games. The well-told horror story can affect even the most obstinate skeptic. How and why does horror fiction work? Why are people so fascinated with monsters? Why do horror stories generally travel well across cultural borders, if all they do is encode salient culturally contingent anxieties, as some horror scholars have claimed? I argue that an evolutionary perspective is useful in explaining the appeal of horror, but also that this perspective cannot stand alone. An exhaustive, vertically integrated theory of horror fiction incorporates the cultural dimension. I make the case for a biocultural approach, one that recognizes evolutionary underpinnings and cultural variation.
Bram Stoker’s seminal horror novel Dracula (1897) has been subjected to a vast number of differen... more Bram Stoker’s seminal horror novel Dracula (1897) has been subjected to a vast number of different critical readings, many of which are deeply flawed, e.g. by proceeding from defunct psychological theories. Incorporating recent advances in evolutionary social science, I offer a biocultural reading of Dracula to account for the novel’s impact and resilience. Dracula connected squarely with late-Victorian anxieties, but the novel also appeals to trans-historical adaptive dispositions. I analyze Stoker’s use of narrative strategies to grab and sustain attention, and Count Dracula as a supercharged predator, a counterintuitive monster well-designed to engage attention and spark the imagination.
The emerging evolutionary approach to literature explores the way that culture and biology intera... more The emerging evolutionary approach to literature explores the way that culture and biology interact. As a branch of evolutionary literary criticism, Darwinian horror study sees horror fiction as crucially dependent on evolved properties of the human constitution. This article argues that a Darwinian perspective on Dan Simmons’ 1985 novel Song of Kali best explains the atheist author’s preoccupation with themes of the supernatural, and accounts for the novel’s emotional impact as a result of humanity’s evolutionary history.
What makes some bad films "so-bad-they're-good"? We explain the paradoxical appeal of trash films... more What makes some bad films "so-bad-they're-good"? We explain the paradoxical appeal of trash films with reference to Wiseau's 2003 cult classic The Room and argue, from the perspective of cognitive film theory, that the film's obtrusive violations of Classical Hollywood conventions deny viewers narrative absorption but allows them to derive from those very violations a humorous pleasure that is often social in nature.
Why would anyone want to play a game designed to scare them? We argue that an alliance between ev... more Why would anyone want to play a game designed to scare them? We argue that an alliance between evolutionary theory and game studies can shed light on the forms and psychological functions of horror video games. Horror games invite players to simulate prototypical fear scenarios of uncertainty and danger. These scenarios challenge players to adaptively assess and negotiate their dangers. While horror games thereby instil negative emotion, they also entice players with stimulating challenges of fearful coping. Players who brave these challenges expand their emotional and behavioural repertoire and experience a sense of mastery, explaining the genre’s paradoxical appeal. We end by illustrating our evolutionary approach through an in-depth analysis of Playdead’s puzzle-horror game Limbo.
... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary E... more ... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Studies, Department of Culture and ... A survey has revealed that 41% of the Danish population thinks that Christian schools should be allowed to teach the words of the ...
How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into... more How far has the Darwinian revolution come? To what extent have evolutionary ideas penetrated into the social sciences and humanities? Are the " science wars " over? Or do whole blocs of disciplines face off over an unbridgeable epistemic gap? To answer questions like these, contributors to top journals in 22 disciplines were surveyed on their beliefs about human nature, culture, and science. More than 600 respondents completed the survey. Scoring patterns divided into two main sets of disciplines. Genetic influences were emphasized in the evolutionary social sciences, evolutionary humanities, psychology, empirical study of the arts, philosophy, economics, and political science. Environmental influences were emphasized in most of the humanities disciplines and in anthropology, sociology, education, and women's or gender studies. Confidence in scientific explanation correlated positively with emphasizing genetic influences on behavior, and negatively with emphasizing environmental influences. Knowing the current actual landscape of belief should help scholars avoid sterile debates and ease the way toward fruitful collaborations with neighboring disciplines.
Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interact... more Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. From the bi-ocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted in the biological necessities of the human life cycle: specifically human forms of birth, growth, survival, mating, parent-ing, and sociality. Conversely, from the biocultural perspective, human biological processes are constrained, organized, and developed by culture, which includes technology , culturally specific socioeconomic and political structures, religious and ideological beliefs, and artistic practices such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling. Establishing biocultural theory as a program that self-consciously encompasses the different particular forms of human evolutionary research could help scholars and scientists envision their own specialized areas of research as contributions to a coherent , collective research program. This article argues that a mature biocultural paradigm needs to be informed by at least 7 major research clusters: (a) gene-culture coevolution; (b) human life history theory; (c) evolutionary social psychology; (d) anthropological research on contemporary hunter-gatherers; (e) biocultural socioeconomic and political history; (f) evolutionary aesthetics; and (g) biocultural research in the humanities (religions, ideologies, the history of ideas, and the arts). This article explains the way these research clusters are integrated in biocultural theory, evaluates the level of development in each cluster, and locates current biocultural theory within the historical trajectory of the social sciences and the humanities.
Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen is graduate student at the School of Communication and Culture , Aar... more Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen is graduate student at the School of Communication and Culture , Aarhus University. His research covers the agonistic structure of popular culture and its adaptive roots. He has published on the psychology of pop-cultural villains in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences. Abstract In response to the crisis in the humanities, some scholars have proposed consilience as a solution. They argue that humanists should build on recent findings in the sciences of mind, including cogni-tive and evolutionary psychology. We discuss the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach, illustrating our discussion with an analysis of the horror video game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. We argue that recent theoretical and empirical developments in the evolutionary social sciences can make sense of how and why horror games so effectively foster immersion and predictable psycho-physiological responses. They target evolved survival mechanisms and are structured to reward vigilance and persistence in the face of fear-and anxiety-provoking stimuli. Finally, we discuss and refute a number of common criticisms of the consilient approach.
... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary E... more ... C. Andersen 4 J. Bek-Thomsen 4 SS Grumsen 4 HH Hjermitslev 4 PC Kjærgaard Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Studies, Department of Culture and ... A survey has revealed that 41% of the Danish population thinks that Christian schools should be allowed to teach the words of the ...
Most of us can probably agree that in the real world, there are no drooling monsters, no rotting ... more Most of us can probably agree that in the real world, there are no drooling monsters, no rotting zombies, no bloodthirsty vampires, and no moaning ghosts. Yet such outlandish ideas capture our attention and figure prominently in popular culture. The horror genre—a natural home for scary monsters—is more in vogue than ever, but also more paradoxical than ever. People in modern societies have little reason to fear being attacked by big terrestrial predators or dangerous reptiles, let alone supernatural monsters. Why, then, do they flock to be scared and thrilled by imaginary monsters in fiction and interactive entertainment? I argue that an evolutionary perspective is uniquely equipped to explain the form, the function, and the widespread appeal of horror entertainment. The emotions elicited by horror media are real emotions, and the best currently available conceptual framework for understanding human emotion comes from evolutionary psychology. Hence, an evolutionary perspective can explain why horror entertainment across media is structured in predictable ways to elicit predictable reactions in its audience. Drawing on illustrative examples from cinema, literature, and computer games, I make the case that an understanding of human phylogeny, in particular the evolution and design specifications of human precautionary cognitive architecture, crucially contributes to a comprehensive, vertically integrated explanation for the persistence of fear-inducing media presentations.
The vampire apocalypse is a fairly unlikely event, but it makes for great storytelling. Richard M... more The vampire apocalypse is a fairly unlikely event, but it makes for great storytelling. Richard Matheson's 1954 I Am Legend is a milestone in modern Gothic literature; it tells the bleak story of Robert Neville, sole survivor of a vampire plague. I employ the concepts of evolved human nature, cultural ecology, and authorial identity as my main analytical tools for understanding the appeal, the power, and the significance of Matheson's classic novel, which is basically an extrapolation on peculiar yet common anxieties and a meditation on what happens when basic adaptive needs are frustrated.
Horror fiction is a thriving industry. Many consumers pay hard-earned money to be scared witless ... more Horror fiction is a thriving industry. Many consumers pay hard-earned money to be scared witless by films, books, and computer games. The well-told horror story can affect even the most obstinate skeptic. How and why does horror fiction work? Why are people so fascinated with monsters? Why do horror stories generally travel well across cultural borders, if all they do is encode salient culturally contingent anxieties, as some horror scholars have claimed? I argue that an evolutionary perspective is useful in explaining the appeal of horror, but also that this perspective cannot stand alone. An exhaustive, vertically integrated theory of horror fiction incorporates the cultural dimension. I make the case for a biocultural approach, one that recognizes evolutionary underpinnings and cultural variation.
Bram Stoker’s seminal horror novel Dracula (1897) has been subjected to a vast number of differen... more Bram Stoker’s seminal horror novel Dracula (1897) has been subjected to a vast number of different critical readings, many of which are deeply flawed, e.g. by proceeding from defunct psychological theories. Incorporating recent advances in evolutionary social science, I offer a biocultural reading of Dracula to account for the novel’s impact and resilience. Dracula connected squarely with late-Victorian anxieties, but the novel also appeals to trans-historical adaptive dispositions. I analyze Stoker’s use of narrative strategies to grab and sustain attention, and Count Dracula as a supercharged predator, a counterintuitive monster well-designed to engage attention and spark the imagination.
The emerging evolutionary approach to literature explores the way that culture and biology intera... more The emerging evolutionary approach to literature explores the way that culture and biology interact. As a branch of evolutionary literary criticism, Darwinian horror study sees horror fiction as crucially dependent on evolved properties of the human constitution. This article argues that a Darwinian perspective on Dan Simmons’ 1985 novel Song of Kali best explains the atheist author’s preoccupation with themes of the supernatural, and accounts for the novel’s emotional impact as a result of humanity’s evolutionary history.
From vampire apocalypses, shark attacks, witches, and ghosts, to murderous dolls bent on revenge,... more From vampire apocalypses, shark attacks, witches, and ghosts, to murderous dolls bent on revenge, horror has been part of the American cinematic imagination for almost as long as pictures have moved on screens. But why do they captivate us so? What is the drive to be frightened, and why is it so perennially popular? Why Horror Seduces addresses these questions through evolutionary social sciences.
Explaining the functional seduction of horror entertainment, this book draws on cutting-edge findings in the evolutionary social sciences, showing how the horror genre is a product of human nature. Integrating the study of horror with the sciences of human nature, the book claims that horror entertainment works by targeting humans' adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe, allowing a high intensity experience within a safe context. Through analyses of well-known and popular modern American works of horror--Rosemary's Baby; The Shining; I Am Legend; Jaws; and several others--author Mathias Clasen illustrates how these works target evolved cognitive and emotional mechanisms; we are attracted to horrifying entertainment because we have an adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe that allows us to experience negative emotions at high levels of intensity within a safe context. Organized into three parts identifying fictional works by evolutionary mode - the evolution of horror; evolutionary interpretations of horror; the future of horror - Why Horror Seduces succinctly explores the cognitive processes behind spectators' need to scream.
Despite horror films representing business ventures intended to turn profit, box office analyses ... more Despite horror films representing business ventures intended to turn profit, box office analyses of the genre have remained rare in scholarly literature. Our study fills that gap through an examination of 117 horror films that reached the top 100 in domestic grosses in the North American film market in the period 2006-2016. This period saw fundamental change in Hollywood film production and the rise of low-budget studios such as Blumhouse Productions, which has become a major player in horror film production. Our study identifies ten sub-types of horror films, and using a quantitative statistical approach, we identify a strong presence of supernatural horror films in the period under discussion as well as a relatively weak presence of zombie, vampire, and torture porn films. We argue that supernatural horror films have dominated the top-grossing films in the timeframe because such films have topical resonance and are appealing to filmmakers because they are comparatively cheap to produce yet turn substantial profit on average. Moreover, we show that compared to the period 1978-2010, horror films from 2006 to 2016 increased only slightly in budgets yet increased significantly in profits. Even in rapidly changing industrial and social contexts, horror films retain a crucial place.
A journal dedicated to evolutionary studies in imaginative culture--literature and the arts, po... more A journal dedicated to evolutionary studies in imaginative culture--literature and the arts, popular culture, religion, ideology, politics. Two volumes per year. Double-blind peer review. Regularly publishes multiple book reviews in the evolutionary social sciences and humanities.
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Edited Journal by Mathias Clasen
A new journal dedicated to evolutionary studies in imaginative culture--literature and the arts, society, popular culture. Issue 1.1 appeared July 2017: http://journals.academicstudiespress.com/index.php/ESIC/issue/view/10 Accepting submissions.
Papers by Mathias Clasen
A new journal dedicated to evolutionary studies in imaginative culture--literature and the arts, society, popular culture. Issue 1.1 appeared July 2017: http://journals.academicstudiespress.com/index.php/ESIC/issue/view/10 Accepting submissions.
Explaining the functional seduction of horror entertainment, this book draws on cutting-edge findings in the evolutionary social sciences, showing how the horror genre is a product of human nature. Integrating the study of horror with the sciences of human nature, the book claims that horror entertainment works by targeting humans' adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe, allowing a high intensity experience within a safe context. Through analyses of well-known and popular modern American works of horror--Rosemary's Baby; The Shining; I Am Legend; Jaws; and several others--author Mathias Clasen illustrates how these works target evolved cognitive and emotional mechanisms; we are attracted to horrifying entertainment because we have an adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe that allows us to experience negative emotions at high levels of intensity within a safe context. Organized into three parts identifying fictional works by evolutionary mode - the evolution of horror; evolutionary interpretations of horror; the future of horror - Why Horror Seduces succinctly explores the cognitive processes behind spectators' need to scream.