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Comment by doki_pen | Hacker News Reader

There is obviously no such thing is ghosts. But I challenge you to go into a spooky old house at night with no lights and not be scared of ghosts.

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It's odd how being scared of something makes you believe that everyone is scared of it.

There's a significant amount of people who don't actually get scared of "spooky old houses". Just like there's some people who don't get nervous when a giant spider is on their hand. Or when they're talking to a crowd. Or when they're on top of a cliff.

I'd certainly be nervous in a "spooky old house" but certainly not for its ghosts. I do despise spiders for one thing.

you make a good point. And I also certainly would not be afraid of ghosts in an old house. I would be afraid of the unknown and unfamiliar places.

but at the same time, what is interesting to me, is that most of us can get scared by horror films or movies about ghosts. so if you get scared by a ghost in a movie, could that mean you believe, at least for a moment, in ghosts? or would it simply mean that IF ghosts existed, you would be afraid of them.

I'm no psychologist but if I were to take a stab (pun intended) at a theory about horror movies, it would more likely to be about empathy with the main characters and not wanting them to die, coupled with the suspension of disbelief that comes with watching the movie.

I'd be more scared of tripping over creaky floorboards. When I was a teenager, we briefly lived in a 200 year old house. The floorboards in the upstairs bedrooms bent when you stepped on them. I was convinced they were going to snap in half and we'd fall through the floor, probably cutting an artery in the groin, bleeding out in minutes. I could hardly sleep at night, afraid the bed was going to fall through the floor.

No, the unexplained lights in the hall at night were nothing in comparison.

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