The Fear Enjoyment Hypothesis: Psychopathic Traits and Invincibility

The main objective of this study was to examine whether invincibility mediates the relationship between psychopathic traits and fear enjoyment. Brock University undergraduate student participants (N = 81) viewed either a neutral video or a video intended to decrease feelings of invincibility and then played a horror game in Virtual Reality. Participants rated the videogame on a list of adjectives which captured fear and exciting affective appraisals. As expected, psychopathic traits were associated with lower fear scores and higher excitement scores. The video condition was not a significant predictor of mediation in the initial model. However, in the control condition the relationship between psychopathy and fear enjoyment was replicated, when each condition was examined separately. More specifically, psychopathic traits were related to a less negative and more positive perception of their emotional state. When participants’ feelings of invincibility were manipulated, this relationship was no longer significant suggesting that feelings of invincibility may be important in being able to enjoy fear-inducing stimuli. These findings align with the Fear Enjoyment Hypothesis (FEH). Future research could investigate invincibility as a mediator with a larger sample size.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Department of Psychology

Grantor

Brock University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Csordas, Amy

• Psychopathic Traits
• Invincibility
• Fear Enjoyment
• Virtual Reality

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10464/18954

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:brocku.scholaris.ca:10464/18954