Explained: How Zombie Movies May Have Prepared Fans For The Covid-19 Pandemic

In the horror subgenre we know as “ zombie movies, ” you might find an ongoing pandemic ring. From the pioneering “ Night of the Living Dead ” (1968) to the recent South Korean production “ Train to Busan ” (2016), zombies infect ordinary people and turn them into zombies, and, just like that happening in Covid-19, the uninfected around them are living in panic, trying to stay safe.

It turns out that the connection may be deeper than a mere resemblance between fiction and fact. If you like horror, especially zombie movies, watching them might have prepared you better for the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the conclusion drawn by the researchers who published their results in the journal Personality and individual differences.

Why zombies?

The study actually covered horror fans in general, as well as morbid curious individuals. Horror fans were people who watched any genre of apocalyptic movies – “zombie movies”, “post-apocalyptic movies” and “alien invasion movies”.

“However, I think the zombie movies in particular resemble – literally and symbolically – the pandemic,” said Coltan Scrivner, a University of Chicago doctoral student who studies horror psychology and who directed the new study. His colleagues were Pennsylvania State University psychologist and professor emeritus John Johnson, and Danish horror experts Mathias Clausen and Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen.

“Zombie outbreaks are almost by definition pandemics,” said Scrivner The Indian Express, by email. “The cause is almost always some kind of infection. The characters in the zombie movies learn to avoid getting infected and often try to find a cure for the infection. Additionally, they learn what the world is like when society begins to collapse or no longer functions normally. While overdone in the movies, it looks like an actual pandemic in some ways.

But how does watching such movies help?

* The information we get from an imaginary zombie apocalypse, according to the study, can be useful in similar situations in the real world. “They [zombie film fans] said they knew what to buy for the pandemic and that the consequences of the pandemic had not taken them by surprise, ”said Scrivner.

* Horror movie fans showed less psychological distress during Covid-19: the study describes them as more psychologically resistant. “In addition to learning to navigate dangerous situations through simulations, people can also learn to deal with their own emotions… It can be assumed that frequent users of horror media often use emotion regulation strategies, this which can improve emotional coping skills, ”he says.

How does the study draw these conclusions?

He interviewed more than 300 participants, who answered various questions. First, they completed a Pandemic Psychological Resilience Scale created by the researchers to determine if they showed positive resilience or psychological distress. Participants also completed a morbid curiosity scale. A third scale was the “Big 5” which measures dimensions of personality, including neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience and awareness. Finally, the participants rated how much they were fans of several different movie genres, such as horror, romance, comedy, zombie movies, etc.

“With the help of these questions, we were about to discover that by controlling the personality traits of the Big 5, horror fans and morbidly curious people were more resilient psychologically during the first months of the pandemic. Covid-19 in the United States. We also found that fans of the Prepper genres – the zombie, apocalyptic, and alien invasion movies – reported being better prepared for the pandemic. “

If I’m not a horror fan, would it help if I started watching zombie movies now?

For resilience against the Covid-19 pandemic, it may be too late. But according to Johnson, the psychologist who collaborated on the study, it’s never too late to prepare for life’s next hurdle.

“I’m not sure that watching such films now would help in our current situation. However, my understanding of pandemics and other life-threatening events is that similar future challenges are absolutely inevitable, ”Johnson said in comments posted on the Pennsylvania State University website.

Johnson and Scrivner both believe that fiction is not just an idle pastime, but a way of imagining simulated realities that prepare us for future challenges. Scrivner told The Indian Express, “Horror in particular offers a way to experience dangerous environments and dangerous social interactions safely. This allows people to do two things:

* “People can train to be afraid or to be anxious and learn to overcome that feeling. This can lead to better emotional regulation skills and, ultimately, better psychological resilience.

* “People can also learn specific information. For example, people who have watched pandemic-themed movies like “Contagion” may have learned what a real pandemic could look like. This could allow people to be better prepared for a real pandemic like Covid-19. “

“Contagion” (2011) is about a deadly influenza infection that is spreading in the United States. Although it is now a decade old, it became one of the top-showing films in America in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the study notes.