Many see a trip to the cinema as a way to unwind from the stresses of everyday life, but if it's a horror film you've chosen, the opposite may be true.
Our lives are now so boring that people are driven to see scary movies to escape from the tedium, a psychologist claims.
"Most people go from cradle to grave without ever being truly scared," said Dr David Lewis. "In a sense we are deprived of our more primitive responses to the world. Now and again we feel the need to give our Stone Age man or woman a buzz."
His comments came as it was revealed one in five adults say the most frightened they have ever been is at the cinema.
"I think that figure is a reflection of the vanilla lives we are leading," added Dr Lewis, who founded the Mindlab International consultancy based at the University of Sussex. He said scary films are so popular because experiencing genuine fear releases "feel-good" chemicals such as dopamine and adrenaline.
