The Sound of Fear: Halloween Special

Radio 4's The Sound of Fear Broadcast last on Wed 19 Oct 2011 16:30 has been made available on the iplayer-radio app in the run up to Halloween, of which is a very interesting listen. "A door creaks, footsteps echo, someone's breathing - and we are terrified. But why? Sean Street investigates the psychology of fear" This was one of the random programs i had playing whilst doing some university work, and it got me interested enough to create a quick blog on the subject matter.. This program has some strong connections with the gaming industry as well as other forms of media, such as films and news outlets. One of the many interesting points was the universal process of hearing with our ears, but listening with our imagination, this is almost certainly true during the dark when our imaginations go crazy with suggestions as to what that creak or noise was, is someone approaching me? or was it just the house settling down?, this fear is a somewhat basic emotion of humans a point proven when a tribe deep within south america of whom had had minimal interaction with western people,  are played a recording of distress/crys of westerners, these tribes people automatically got a sense of heighten awareness as to possible danger, the experiment was repeated the other way round and when distress/crys of tribe members were played to westerners, the same response was received.

           An interesting segment on silence or the lack of sound, also played into this fear of something is going to happen.. films regularly use this as a scare tactic to suddenly spring a large bang or set-piece, causing audiences to succumb to natural reactions and jolt in there seats. it is also common for people to use radios/TV to fill the void of an empty house without the full intention to listen to it, just to feel that there not alone.
       Any sound though can be thought of as frightening given the context it was heard in, for example, footsteps are a common sound of day to day life, but within the context of being dark and say in bed, the sound can take on a whole other meaning and again our imaginations run wild with possibilities until we gain an understanding of what it was.. I recommend a listen to the program before its removed again from the service.