: Re: Proven psychological or scientific means of scaring people? I already feel right out of the gate that this is going to be a naive question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. I know that writing

@Odierno164

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What scares people is the threat of disaster they cannot control, or anticipate, that they are helpless to do anything about. Their fear is of impending loss, which includes injury, death, loss of financial security, loss of someone they love (in particular a child they feel responsible for).

These fears can be exacerbated by constraints enforcing their lack of control: being tied up, being trapped. Not being sure if their protections will work. The tornado is here, it seems it is trying to kill us, and the doors of the storm basement are rattling so hard the hinges are coming loose.

The plane is going down, and there is nowhere to run or hide, you have no control. The pilot isn't talking. You may be dying in minutes, and you can't do a damn thing about it. And your child is screaming in your arms, and you can't save them, either.

Women (and men, in prison for example) fear being raped, it is an enormous loss to be violated, to have taken what should only be given by your own choice, to be forced and be helpless to do anything about it.

Although it may not be the stuff of horror novels, people fear loss of financial and physical security, being robbed of everything, losing their home, their job, their healthcare. This terrifies people enough they spend large amounts of money every year on various forms of insurance, to guard against the losses. Still it is fear driving them; but insurance is a way to control that.

People are afraid of power, the physical power of assailants and the more abstract social power of bosses, police, politicians and the military (their own or another country's) to force them to do things, give up things, or become slaves. If you think about it, the number one reason people buy guns in the USA is not for sport, it is for fear of being attacked or conquered and having no control over their destiny. When they are out practicing, they are imagining "the bad guys" coming for them, because they are afraid that will really happen someday. (Maybe it will, I'm not judging, I'm describing their fear.)

For a horror story, you need the generic advice: Likeable and relatable characters, so the reader cares what happens to them. That's the setup, then they are doing something NEW but that they think is innocuous (a party, a tourist trip, a new job, a plane ride, a cruise, etc).

Then you drop them in a nightmare scenario over which they have no control. They need to be trapped, in real danger (which you can prove by sacrificing some), unable to do anything about it, and imagining all the terrible things that will happen to them, and seeing some of those come to pass. Your readers are terrified because the stakes are high, and because they like the characters the readers are afraid of what the characters cannot control, the characters they like may not survive the ordeal you have thrust them into.

Take away their control of their situation. Apply constraints so they are prevented from calling for help (no phone service), going for help (the boat is broken), running away (they are on a damn island!), or finding anything that would help them (they search the house and barn and find nothing).

Now you might want to keep something clever in reserve so a few of them defeat the evil and survive, that is part of being clever in writing your novel. But to make it scary, the audience must be able to imagine themselves in this situation (depends on the demographic you wish to target), feel as helpless as the characters (but beware, the helplessness must be plausible, and you must close all plausible routes to escape or control), and your characters cannot give up; they must be trying like hell to stay alive (and you will likely have to kill a few to prove the threat is real).

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