A new study has found that a vast majority of children enjoy engaging in activities that are both scary and fun, a phenomenon scientists call “recreational fear.” The research reveals that this type of playful engagement with fear is a common part of development from infancy through the teenage years, with the specific activities changing as children get older. The findings were published in the journal Child Psychiatry & Human Development.
Fear is typically viewed as a negative emotion, a response to perceived danger that triggers reactions like fight, flight, or freeze. However, it is also clear that people often intentionally seek out frightening experiences for entertainment, such as watching horror movies or riding roller coasters. This mix of fear and enjoyment is known as recreational fear. While this behavior has been studied in adults, much less was known about how it manifests in children. Past research on children and fear has often focused on the potential negative outcomes of frightening media, like nightmares or anxiety.
A team of researchers led by Mihaela Taranu of Aarhus University wanted to create a comprehensive picture of children’s positive engagement with fear. They recognized that while some theories suggested scary play could be beneficial for development, there was a lack of systematic data on how common these experiences actually are across childhood. The study aimed to map out the prevalence of recreational fear, exploring what types of activities children enjoy, how often they engage in them, and the social contexts in which these experiences happen.
To gather this information, the researchers designed a detailed survey for parents and caregivers in Denmark. The final sample included 1,600 respondents, each reporting on one child between the ages of 1 and 17. The sample was balanced to ensure an even spread of children across each age. Before beginning the main survey, participants completed a training exercise to ensure they understood the concept of recreational fear. They were presented with scenarios and had to correctly identify which ones described an activity that was both scary and enjoyable, as opposed to experiences that were only scary or only enjoyable.
The survey itself listed 19 different categories of recreational fear activities, which were developed based on interviews with parents, children, and educators. These categories ranged from mild experiences, like being playfully chased, to more intense ones, like watching horror films. For each category, parents answered questions about their child’s enjoyment of the activity, the frequency of their engagement, who they typically engaged with, and where the activities took place. The researchers then analyzed this data to identify patterns and trends across different age groups.
The results revealed that recreational fear is an extremely common part of childhood. An overwhelming 93% of children were reported by their parents to enjoy at least one type of scary yet fun activity. Engagement was also frequent, with 70% of children participating in such an activity at least once a week and about 20% doing so on a daily basis. The most popular category across all ages involved experiences with high speeds, heights, or depths, such as on swings, slides, or amusement park rides. This was followed by various forms of media, including scary movies, television shows, stories, and video games. The least popular categories involved breaking norms, like engaging in activities that inflict mild pain or violate social rules.
The study identified clear developmental trends. The variety of recreational fear activities that children enjoy appears to change with age. The average number of different categories a child enjoys increases significantly between the ages of one and four. After that, from age five to seventeen, there is a slight but steady decrease in the number of different activity types enjoyed.
More telling was the shift in the nature of the activities themselves. Younger children were more likely to experience recreational fear through physical and imaginative play. Activities like rough-and-tumble play, pretend play with scary themes, and rule-based games like hide-and-seek were common. As children grew into adolescence, their engagement shifted toward media-based experiences. The enjoyment of scary movies, television series, video games, and frightening content on social media all increased steadily with age. The one constant was the popularity of activities involving speeds, depths, and heights, which remained high across the entire age range, though the frequency of participation tended to decrease as children got older.
The social context of these activities also evolved over time. The findings indicate that recreational fear is a predominantly social experience for children. Younger children most often engaged in these activities with parents, caregivers, or siblings. As they entered adolescence, friends and peers became their primary companions for scary fun. Solitary engagement with recreational fear was less common overall but did increase as children aged. This shift toward independence was also reflected in parents’ responses. For children around age 11 and older, parents were more likely to answer “I don’t know” when asked with whom or where their child was engaging in these activities.
The researchers propose that these changing patterns are closely linked to children’s overall development. The activities children find appealing for recreational fear align with their cognitive and physical abilities at different stages. For instance, the peak enjoyment of scary pretend play corresponds with the age that pretend play is a dominant form of learning and exploration. Similarly, the growing interest in scary video games matches the development of fine motor skills and attention required for gaming. This suggests that children naturally integrate the experience of fear into the activities that are most relevant to their developmental stage.
Given how widespread these behaviors are, the authors suggest they may serve an important function. They connect their findings to theories from the study of risky play, which proposes that voluntarily engaging with manageable fear helps children learn about their own limits and develop coping skills. By experiencing fear in a controlled and enjoyable setting, children may be practicing how to regulate their emotions. This practice could build resilience and potentially protect against later anxiety.
The social nature of these activities is also significant. Sharing an intense or frightening experience can strengthen social bonds. Engaging in scary activities with trusted family members or friends may create a secure environment where children feel safe enough to explore fear. The presence of others can help a child manage their emotional response, making the experience more enjoyable and educational.
The study has some limitations that the authors acknowledge. The data comes from the perspective of parents, not from the children themselves. Parents may not be fully aware of all their children’s activities, especially as they get older, and they might misinterpret a child’s feelings. This is a particular concern for activities that involve breaking rules, which children might hide from their parents.
Another limitation is that the research was conducted entirely within Denmark. Cultural norms and environmental factors can greatly influence how children play and express themselves. The patterns observed in a Western, post-industrialized society may not apply to children growing up in different cultural contexts. The researchers suggest that future studies should aim to get children’s own perspectives on recreational fear and explore these behaviors in a wider range of cultures. This work could help to better understand why children are so drawn to these experiences and how they might support healthy emotional and psychological development.
The study, “Recreational Fear Across Childhood. A Cross-Sectional Study of Scary Activities that Children Enjoy,” was authored by Mihaela Taranu, Mathias Clasen, Fernando E. Rosas, Helen Dodd, and Marc Malmdorf Andersen.