MINNEAPOLIS — You've probably heard of a "jump scare"--a common trick used in horror films and haunted houses causing you to freak out.
If you've ever experienced one, it's probably because you're surprised by something you see. And almost always, it's accompanied by something loud you suddenly hear.
Jasmine Bensen, a licensed audiologist with HearUSA, said these sounds can cause a physical reaction.
"It's a lot," Bensen said. "You can just think about it now, and it – oh, it is scary."
Bensen said this is called a "startle response" or "startle pattern": a bodily reaction to a sudden, unexpected stimulus such as a loud noise. Horror films and haunted houses are chock full of these stimuli.
"They use those to elicit our startle response which is rapid heart rate, abnormal breathing," Bensen said.
A startle response can also make a person or an animal tense up, or even duck for cover. The response itself is evolutionary, helping to detect a potential threat. A lion's roar is an example.
But a startle response can also help you jump into protective mode for someone else.
"An example, a baby – we have an alert response for that baby crying," Bensen said.
In horror movies, filmmakers purposely use what are called "nonlinear sounds," which are music or sound effects with a sudden jump in frequency. Think of the violins in Bernard Herrman's famous theme in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller, "Psycho."
"The amplitude is not normal," Bensen said.
These spine-tingling nonlinear sounds set the stage to startle you.
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