The Science Of Scary: 10 Reasons Why You Love Being Scared

3. Why Do People Want To Believe In Ghosts?

So we've established that one of the only reasons people enjoy scary stuff is because they know it isn't real ... so why do so many people choose to believe that it is?

Contrary to what you might think about the kind of people who believe in ghosts, demons and god knows what else, it's actually a symptom of our super-smart human brains.

The ability to comprehend cause and effect, to essentially predict the future, is a feature of human brains that allows us to see lots of connections in the world around us. However, it turns out that we're a bit too good at this, and sometimes our brains get a little overexcited and come up with connections that aren't there.

The brain has so much information to process that it uses a lot of shortcuts. For example, you are primed to spot faces in seemingly random patterns. This is because something with a face is more likely to be something that you are going to have to react to/fight/run away from than, say, a rumpled up curtain, so your brain goes for the worst case scenario to save time when you might have to react/fight/run away. When you look at it this way, it's pretty easy to see why people are always able to pick out human figures in shadowy windows or misty graveyards.

Although, this does raise the question why, since we have produced such strong evidence to the contrary, do people continue to believe?

The problem is that our brains are smart, but not as smart as we like to think. We're not designed to process big concepts such as probability, so when something incredible happens, your friend rings you when you were thinking about them or you get the promotion that your prayed for, you're likely to assume it lies outside the realms of probability, even if its something we think we understand.