Fright Reactions Research Articles

Parent Reports of Children’s Fright Reactions to News of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results from a National U.S. Sample

ABSTRACT Between April 17 and 29, 2020, we conducted a nationwide online survey of parents of children between the ages of 3 and 17 years (N = 1560). A majority of children were reported to be negatively emotionally affected (frightened, disturbed, or upset) by news coverage of COVID-19. Every stress symptom asked about (including nervousness, crying, and sleep problems) was dramatically more prevalent among children frightened than not frightened by the coverage. Open-ended questions illustrated the emotional depths of some responses. Developmental differences occurred in elements of coverage seen to influence fright. Most parents of frightened children tried to help their child cope, but their choices of strategies were only partially consistent with developmental expectations. Children with digital devices in their bedroom showed greater fear; more hours of COVID news were transmitted in homes with frightened than unfrightened children; and the relationship between media access and children’s fear intensity and stress symptoms remained after controlling for parents’ own fear and parents’ closeness with people diagnosed with COVID. Parents are encouraged to monitor children’s exposure to media-conveyed catastrophes, to be mindful of potential age differences in child responses, and to be available to help children cope.

Fear in virtual reality (VR): Fear elements, coping reactions, immediate and next-day fright responses toward a survival horror zombie virtual reality game

This study explores players’ fright reactions and coping strategies in an immersive virtual reality (VR) horror game. Based on Slater’s theory of virtual reality, two dimensions of fear elements in the VR game−the fear of place illusion (PI) and the plausibility illusion (PSI) −were identified by playing a virtual reality survival horror game with a sample of 145 students. Participants reported greater fear toward PSI elements than toward PI elements. Fear of PSI elements positively and strongly predicted disengagement coping strategies and overall fear. Among coping strategies, players mainly adopted approach strategies, followed by avoidance (disengagement and denial), and self-help strategies. A “self-talk” strategy, newly identified in this study, has been reported as an effective means to cope with mediated threat in VR games. Regarding individual differences, sensation seeking and neuroticism influenced participants’ coping strategies and fear. Additionally, males and females employed different coping strategies. Very few students experienced next-day fright, which consists mostly of cognitive reactions and VR-related reactions, such as the Tetris effect and the fear of being attacked from the back. Theoretical frameworks regarding fear elements and coping reactions are proposed to aid future research. Implications for academia, fear conditioning for training, and marketing campaigns are discussed.

Re-imagining Horror in Children's Animated Film

Re-imagining Horror in Children's Animated Film

Children and Terrorism and commentaries

Children and Terrorism and commentaries

Exposure to swainsonine impairs adult neurogenesis and spatial learning and memory

Swainsonine (SW) is an indolizidine triol plant alkaloid isolated from the species Astragalus, colloquially termed locoweed. Ingestion induces severe neurological symptoms of livestock and wildlife, including ataxia, trembling, exaggerated fright reactions. Toxicity to the central and peripheral nervous system is caused by inhibition of lysosomal a-mannosidase (AMA) and accumulation of intracellular oligosaccharide. However, the effects of SW on adult neurogenesis and cognition have remained unclear. Therefore, the present study was conducted to examine the effects of SW on adult neurogenesis and learning as well as memory performance in adult mice. SW (10μg/mL in drinking water) was administered orally to mice for 4 weeks. Our results showed that SW reduced proliferation and survival of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in culture, and in the hippocampus of adult mice. In addition, exposure to SW led to down-regulation of doublecortin (DCX) and synaptophysin (SYP) in the hippocampus. However, caspase 3 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels were significantly increased in SW-treated mice. Finally, SW-treated mice exhibited deficits in hippocampus-dependent spatial learning and memory. Our findings suggest that SW affects adult neurogenesis and cognitive function.

Beurteilung einer Lärmbelastung bei Schafen

The behaviour of sheep was recorded as a reaction to the sound pressure levels caused by shooting with heavy machine guns. The reactions varied in intensity depending on the distance of the source of the noise from the fold. In the case of salvoes that were fired in the immediate vicinity of the fold and were associated with sound pressure levels higher than 120 dB (LCpeak), the sheep reacted with marked fright reactions, and no adaptation to the shooting noise was observed. It is concluded that the tolerable maximum noise level for sheep with this kind of noise source is likely to be less than 120 dB (LCpeak).

“People Killing People on the News”: Young Children's Descriptions of Frightening Television News Content

This article investigated children's fear responses to everyday exposure to the news in the absence of a recent crisis or major event. From March to May 2006, a survey was conducted of 218 kindergarten through 6th-grade children regarding their fright reactions to the news. Results showed that 35.3% of children reported being frightened by the news. Reporting on what frightened them in their own words, children most frequently mentioned natural disasters (24.7% of children frightened), followed by kidnappings (10.4% of children frightened), the Iraq War (7.8%), and burglaries (7.8%). A qualitative analysis suggests that some children have vivid memories of disturbing news content. The accessibility of television in children's households was not related to news exposure or fear. Implications for parental guidance and research methods are discussed.

Behaviour and neural responses in crucian carp to skin odours from cross-order species

Many teleost species respond with fright reactions to olfactory cues from injured skin of conspecifics, but they may also display responses to skin extracts of heterospecific fish. In the present study, we exposed crucian carp to skin extracts of conspecifics and three cross-order species of fish (brown trout, pike, and perch). Behavioural experiments showed that conspecific skin extracts induced fright reactions in crucian carp; extracts of brown trout induced such behaviour less frequently, while extracts of perch and pike were poor inducers of fright responses. The olfactory bulb is chemo-topically organized, and different sub-sets of neurons respond to functionally related odorants that mediate distinct behaviours. Accordingly, behavioural responses to an alarm signal should be reflected by activation of the neurons mediating fright reaction. Extracellular recordings from single units in the olfactory bulb showed that the relay neurons activated by conspecific skin extracts were also activated by extracts of brown trout, whereas extracts of perch and pike less frequently activated these units. Thus, the difference in behavioural responses matched the differences in the neural responses, indicating that skin extracts of heterospecific fish are more likely to induce fright behaviour when the responding sub-set of olfactory neurons is similar to the sub-set responding to conspecific extracts. Our results suggest that responses to injured heterospecific fish rely on chemical resemblance between odorants from heterospecific and conspecific skin, and need not be based on any form of associative learning.

Clinical practice

Both news media and entertainment fiction may lead to short-term and enduring fright reactions. Even TV programs, movies and news made for children may trigger fear. Preoperational children (3 to 7 years of age) are most afraid of fantasy characters, transformations and interpersonal violence. Operational children (8 to 11 years) are more afraid of abstract ideas and imagined implications regarding their own risk. Pediatricians must include media in their history taking and beware of ensuing fear, phobias, sleep and behavior problems. Parents can play a vital role in preventing exposure to or mediating the effects of frightening media. Hospitals must have a pediatric media exposure policy. Media use can have immediate and enduring fear effects that affect many children and that are far from trivial.

Estimation of the catchability of redfish and blue whiting for survey trawls in the Norwegian Sea

Estimates of fish biomass, derived from hydroacoustic registrations are generally dependent on biological information from trawl catches. Catch composition is necessary for accurate quantitative allocation of acoustic energy to the different species present in the water column. For this purpose, the species composition in the trawl catch must be representative of the true species composition in the ocean, which requires that the catchability of the trawl for individual species is known. The catchability is expected to be trawl- and species-specific as a result of variations in fish behaviour in front of the trawl (fright reactions, swimming speeds and other factors) which can affect the chance of fish being caught or escaping. We show that catchability estimates for several species can be simultaneously derived from combined trawl-acoustic samples through a simple and straight- forward optimization method. We apply the method to estimate the catchability of two important pelagic species in the Norwegian Sea, beaked redfish (Sebastes mentella) and blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) when fished with a large pelagic trawl, the Gloria 2048.

Descriptions of Media-Induced Fright Reactions in a Sample of US Elementary School Children

Grade-school children (N = 219, M age = 8.5 years) reported their experiences of media-induced fear in their own words and using forced-choice items. Seventy-six per cent reported a specific instance of media-induced fright; most were responding to movies (seen in theaters or homes) and media content they had not chosen to view. The most commonly mentioned content involved supernatural themes. More than one-third of children scared by movies named a movie rated G or PG. Frequent symptoms included sleep disturbances and anxieties in normally nonthreatening situations. Having a television in one's bedroom was the best predictor of fright severity. Findings demonstrate the value of using open-ended questions and underscore the need for further research on prevention and coping strategies.

Suspected swainsonine poisoning in a Belgian horse

SummaryThe case of a horse with acute symptoms of excitement, exaggerated fright reactions and trembling is presented. In addition to these cerebral symptoms, mild cerebellar ataxia and a renal tubular lesion were diagnosed. Suspected swainsonine poisoning was confirmed by the presence of the toxin (154 ng/ml) in the serum sample taken immediately after admission. A good recovery was seen after fluid therapy with supplementation of potassium, a dopamine drip and administration of diazepam. The effects of the toxin, by inhibiting the lysosomal enzyme α‐mannosidase and mimicking the genetic mannosidosis, are discussed.

Physiological reactions of preschoolers to fear‐inducing film clips: Effects of temperamental fearfulness and quality of the parent–child relationship

This study investigates young children's fright reactions induced by television. The central question concerns the degree to which the impact can be predicted by temperamental fearfulness and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Using a procedure for recording simultaneously skin conductance (SCL) and heart rate variability (RMSSD), 78 3- and 4-year-olds were shown two brief TV film episodes (one fear-inducing and one emotionally neutral). The children responded to fear-inducing film stimuli with an increase in SCL-reactivity and a decrease in RMSSD-reactivity. Furthermore, temperamentally more fearful children showed most electrodermal reactivity when their relationship with the parent was less harmonious. More fearful children were more susceptible to the quality of the relationship with their parent, which provides support for the differential susceptibility hypothesis.

Children's and Parents' Fright Reactions to Kidnapping Stories in the News

We conducted a random telephone survey of 182 parents to assess their reactions as well as their children's reactions to child kidnapping stories in the news. Children below age 13 experienced more fright-related feelings and more concern for their personal safety than adolescents did. Children who were heavy viewers of TV news also were more frightened. Parents rated themselves as more upset by the stories than their children were. Parents' fright responses and coping strategies were more prevalent among those who paid close attention to the high-profile news stories and those who regularly viewed TV series about missing persons. The findings are discussed in terms of cultivation theory and developmental differences in how children process information.

“I'll Never Have a Clown in My House” — Why Movie Horror Lives On

To explore lingering effects of frightening media, 530 papers written by students over a three-year period (1997-2000) were reviewed. The students could write about their own fright reactions or about a response they had witnessed in another person. Almost all students (93 percent) wrote about their own experiences, and the overwhelming majority (91 percent) described reactions to realistic fiction or fantasy content (depicting impossible events) rather than to the news or a documentary. The ninety-one papers about the four presentations cited most frequently— Jaws, Poltergeist, The Blair Witch Project, and Scream—were content analyzed. Of the papers, 46 percent reported an effect on bedtime behavior (e.g., sleep disturbances) and 75 percent reported effects on waking life (e.g., anxiety in related situations). Among the prominent effects on waking life were difficulty swimming after Jaws (in lakes and pools as well as the ocean); uneasiness around clowns, televisions, and trees afterPoltergeist; avoidance of camping and the woods following The Blair Witch Project; and anxiety when home alone after Scream. More than one-third of the papers reported effects continuing to the time of the study. These consequences attest to the enduring power of emotional memory even when the viewer is aware that the response is to a large extent irrational. Possible reasons for these lingering effects are discussed.

Responses of West Greenland caribou to the approach of humans on foot

Responses to the approach of a human were studied in two caribou populations (Akia and Isortoq) in West Greenland during calving, summer and after the hunt in 1997–98. For each group encountered the distance between the approaching person and the caribou at their first sign of fright (“fright threshold distance”), the distance between the person and the caribou when they began to move away (“flight threshold distance”), and the distance the caribou ran (“run distance”) were measured with a laser range finder. Generally, groups of caribou had longer fright threshold, flight threshold and run distances, indicating more vigilance than single individuals. Groups with calves were more vigilant than female and male groups, while there was no difference between female and male groups. This pattern was most clear in the Akia population. The frequency of curiosity behaviour indicated that the Akia caribou were less vigilant than the Isortoq caribou after the hunting, while there was no locational difference during the other seasons. Caribou in Akia were most vigilant during calving, whereas in the Isortoq population the highest vigilance was found after hunting. Hunting seemed to have heightened awareness in the Isortoq population. It is concluded that flight and fright reactions of Greenland caribou are similar to those found among other caribou populations, and that precautions should be taken to minimize disturbing caribou during calving.

Fright Reactions to Television

Using telephone interviews with a random sample of Dutch children between the ages of 7 and 12 years, the authors investigated (a) the prevalence of television-induced fright, (b) whether the fear-inducing capacity of different types of television content (interpersonal violence, fantasy characters, war and suffering, and fires and accidents) is associated with the child's age and gender, and (c) how boys and girls in different age groups cope with their television-induced fears. Thirty-one percent of the children reported having been frightened by television during the preceding year. Both children's television-induced fears and their coping strategies to reduce such fears varied by age and gender.

Responses of West Greenland caribou to the approach of humans on foot

Responses to the approach of a human were studied in two caribou populations (Akia and Isortoq) in West Greenland during calving, summer and after the hunt in 1997–98. For each group encountered the distance between the approaching person and the caribou at their first sign of fright (“fright threshold distance”), the distance between the person and the caribou when they began to move away (“flight threshold distance”), and the distance the caribou ran (“run distance”) were measured with a laser range finder. Generally, groups of caribou had longer fright threshold, flight threshold and run distances, indicating more vigilance than single individuals. Groups with calves were more vigilant than female and male groups, while there was no difference between female and male groups. This pattern was most clear in the Akia population. The frequency of curiosity behaviour indicated that the Akia caribou were less vigilant than the Isortoq caribou after the hunting, while there was no locational difference during the other seasons. Caribou in Akia were most vigilant during calving, whereas in the Isortoq population the highest vigilance was found after hunting. Hunting seemed to have heightened awareness in the Isortoq population. It is concluded that flight and fright reactions of Greenland caribou are similar to those found among other caribou populations, and that precautions should be taken to minimize disturbing caribou during calving.

Predator recognition and defence strategies in crucian carp, Carassius carassius

Crucian carp from populations that lack piscivores are extremely vulnerable to predation. However, in the presence of piscivores these fish develop an inducible morphological defence, a deep body. This switch from a vulnerable, shallow‐bodied morph to a morphologically defended morph makes this species very suitable for investigations of anti‐predator strategies, and trade‐offs between morphological and behavioural defences. To address these questions, we performed eight different experiments. We found that crucian carp exhibited fright responses to chemical cues from unfamiliar predators (northern pike, perch) when these were fed prey that contained alarm substance (for northern pike: crucian carp, roach; for perch: crucian carp). Cues from small pike that were fed prey that lacked alarm substance (swordtails) caused no significant fright response whereas cues from larger pike with the same diet did. Perch on a chironomid diet elicited weaker but significant fright responses. Starved predators caused as strong fright reactions as recently fed ones did, whereas no response was exhibited towards nonpredatory fish (roach, crucian carp). Crucian carp were able to detect the presence of pike after cues had been diluted to an equivalent of 21 000 l, and larger predators elicited stronger fright responses. Prior experience of predators decreased fright responses. In particular, individuals from populations that coexisted with northern pike responded less to chemical cues from northern pike than individuals without prior experience did. Thus, crucian carp may use both alarm‐substance related and predator‐related cues to identify predators. Further, they were able to discriminate between large and small predators. Finally, individuals from populations that coexist with predators exhibit less pronounced fright responses. These fish have an induced morphological defence, a deep body, which most likely decreases the need for strong antipredator behaviour.

Tales from the Screen: Enduring Fright Reactions to Scary Media

This study was conducted to examine enduring fright reactions to mass media via recollective self-reports of a sample of undergraduates (average age 20.6 years) from two universities. Ninety percent (138 of 153) of the participants reported such a reaction. Most experiences occurred in childhood or adolescence, with 26.1% of the participants still experiencing residual anxiety at the time of measurement. More than half of the sample reported subsequent disturbances in sleeping or eating patterns, and a substantial proportion reported avoiding or dreading the situation depicted in the program or movie and mental preoccupation with the stimulus. Stimulus types were coded according to the jive categories of stimuli related to phobic reactions—animal, environmental, situational, blood/injection/injury, and "other" (disturbing sounds and distorted images)—described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Almost all of the films or movies reported contained stimuli from at least one of these categories. Developmental differences were observed in both the types of stimuli that provoked fright responses and the coping strategies used by viewers.