The Atlas Obscura Podcast · Friday, October 30, 2026
Research from the Recreational Fear Lab has categorized horror fans into three distinct groups: adrenaline junkies who want to heighten their fear, white-knucklers who try to decrease their fear by looking away, and dark cobras who use horror experiences to deal with the anxiety of the outside world. Editor-in-chief Samir Patel and host Johanna Mayer discuss how these different groups report similar levels of satisfaction after visiting attractions like Denmark's Dystopia haunted house.
“studies essentially broke down the typology of horror fans, the typology of people who would attend something like dystopia. So there's the adrenaline junkies. These are the folks who are there because they love horror, they want to be part of it.”
“They also, in their later analysis, found a third group of horror fans. And these are people they call the Dark Cobras. And these are folks for whom they sort of explicitly go into horror.”