All those late nights watching Netflix really did do us some good.
Many of us enjoy post-apocalyptic horror movies, perhaps viewing them as a late-night guilty pleasure. However, research carried out at Penn State University at the beginning of 2021 suggested that people who regularly enjoy these films were better prepared for the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic than those who avoid scary movies.
Even after factoring out personality influences, the team still found that the more horror, zombie, alien and apocalyptic films people had watched, the better they coped with the pandemic. The researchers think that these stories act as a mental rehearsal for real life. Pass us the popcorn.
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