Not Spooked by Halloween Ghost Stories? You May Have Aphantasia

upstart writes:

Not spooked by Halloween ghost stories? You may have aphantasia:

So why are some people more easily spooked by stories than others? We ran an experiment to find out.

[...] One reason some people are more easily spooked could relate to how well they can visualize the scary scene in their mind.

When some people listen to a story they automatically conjure up the scene in their mind's eye, while others have to focus really hard to create any sort of mental image.

A small proportion cannot visualize images at all. No matter how hard they try, they do not see anything in their mind. This inability to visualize is known as aphantasia.

Although we have known people vary in their ability to visualize for many years, the term aphantasia was not coined until 2015.

We don't yet know exactly how many people have aphantasia. But estimates vary at 1-4% of the population.

[...] If the ability to visualize images and scenes in the mind plays a role in how we react to spooky stories, what does that mean for people with aphantasia? How do they react when reading scary stories?

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