If you’ve spent numerous weekends binge watching movies about alien attacks, zombie apocalypses and just the end of the world in general, congratulations. Because study shows that you might have actually done yourself a huge favour.
According to research, apocalyptic aka ‘prepper’ movie fans were the most resilient and well prepared to deal with the pandemic.
The scenarios that films like Contagion, A Quiet Place and Bird Box presented helped fans develop a point of view on how to deal with a situation like today. In hindsight, your habit of putting yourself through sleepless nights and frightening yourself actually made it easier for you to get a grip on the current pandemic.
If it’s a good movie, it pulls you in and you take the perspective of the characters, so you are unintentionally rehearsing the scenarios.
We think people are learning vicariously. It’s like, with the exception of the toilet paper shortage, they pretty much knew what to buy.
-Coltan Scrivner, University of Chicago told The Guardian
On the other hand, this study by Coltan Scrivner also showed that horror movie fans were less distressed by our current situation. Though not as well prepared as apocalyptic movie fans, their coping mechanism towards the pandemic was notable due to the frightening fiction they were often exposed to.
For the cost of a bad dream one night, you can learn what the world looks like when a pandemic hits. It’s not like you’re thinking, this is what I’ll do when someone chases me, but you’re building the knowledge you can draw on later, even if it’s outside your conscious awareness.
-Coltan Scrivner, University of Chicago told The Guardian
The study was held by studying 310 volunteers, their movie preferences, their viewing history and how they were dealing with the pandemic were taken into account. BRB, going to binge-watch The Walking Dead.