Why should you visit haunted houses?

Why do people like to push themselves to get scared, even when they might be anxious or know it might be hard for them?

Let social science and Melody Wilding, author of “Trust Yourself,” tell you from her chapter on taking smart risks:

"Exposing yourself to stressful situations can lessen fear and avoidance up to 90 percent. Selecting those situations *yourself*, rather than having them imposed on you by the outside world, is both empowering and builds your sense that you have what it takes to tackle future difficulties and seize opportunities. That way, when you do find yourself in unpredictable or high-pressure situations, you're already skilled at accessing your intuition and taking decisive action. At the deepest level, trying hard things helps reshape your identity. As you keep taking chances and stretching yourself, you go from viewing yourself as weak or fragile to believing that you have what it takes to rise to the occasion. You stop feeding the neural networks in your brain that whisper *you can't* and instead strengthen the ones that remind you *you can*."

During this past haunt season, a haunt owner shared how she came across a customer who was scared to go through the haunt because she was afraid of the dark, strobe lights, screaming and chainsaws. The haunt owner asked why the girl came to the haunt, and the girl said she thought she could do it, but her anxiety was stopping her from going inside.

So, the owner decided to walk her through the haunt. The girl said she wanted to leave several times and clinged to the owner, who continued to make her feel safe and assure her she'd be fine.

The girl made it to the final actor, who had a chainsaw. The owner showed the girl the chainsaw, helped her make friends with the actor, and let the girl start the chainsaw herself. In the end, the haunt owner said, “she LOVED her experience and is now a FAN for LIFE!”

The girl was confident enough to come try a haunted house, and had some help when faced with the final choice to walk through, but in the end realized her strength after facing her fears.

Spooky joy is on the other side of finding your own strength.

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From the book quote, Wilding is citing this study:

Kaplan, Johanna S., and David F. Tolin. "Exposure therapy for anxiety disorders: theoretical mechanisms of exposure and treatment strategies." Psychiatric Times, vol. 28, no. 9, Sept. 2011, p. 33. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/…. Accessed 14 Jan. 2026.