UPPER BURRELL, Pa. -- Just in time for the month-long celebration of Halloween, Penn State New Kensington opens its campus speaker series 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, with fear researcher Margee Kerr.
A sociologist by trade, Kerr gives her insights onto the science behind fear and why people love to be scared. She has researched the anticipation, suspense, adrenaline and excitement of fear, and why some people crave it while others loath it.
Kerr, who holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh, will talk about the creative ways people engage with thrilling and scary material. Not content just to research fear, she has undertaken a series of adventures to experience fear first hand, walking nearly 1,200-feet above the ground on the edge of the CN Tower in Ontario and attempting to navigate a 168-foot water slide in Kansas City.
“It’s amazing to actually feel the physical responses I’ve read so much about in the research on fight or flight and to make the connections between my own personal experiences and the recent understandings of what our brains and bodies are doing when we’re in these intense and thrilling situations,” Kerr wrote in her Adventures blog. “It’s such a push and pull between our bodies and our minds. Insane rides create motivating feelings of anticipation and excitement, and that’s part of the fun.”
Kerr is a nationally-recognized expert on professional haunted houses. When she is not researching, she is the consultant for ScareHouse, a haunted attraction in Etna, a suburb of Pittsburgh. She works with ScareHouse creators on being scientifically scary, as well as developing, implementing and analyzing data on customers and employees. The ScareHouse was selected in 2010 to the list of The 10 Wickedest Haunted Houses in America by Forbes Magazine.
Tickets for the talk are $5. Students with college or high school identification are admitted for free. The series is open to the public. General admission seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For tickets, call 724-334-6049 or contact uxw1@psu.edu.
For more about Kerr, visit http://www.nk.psu.edu/45989.htm.
To view Kerr's blog, visit http://www.margeekerr.com/blog/.