Boo！ It’s good for you劉夢瑤

Scary things can cause your body to produce healthy chemicals that make you feel happy and protected.

The Positives of Fear

Being scared can be good for you. Think about your favorite scary book or movie. What happens when something strikes in the night， or a door or glass breaks down？ It often makes us jump. This reaction is caused by fear.

Fear makes your brain flood with healthy chemical substances that excite your mood and produce great excitement. According to Dr. Margee Kerr， a sociologist who studies fear， this “powerful chemical” includes endorphins（安多芬）and dopamine（多巴胺）in the body that creates feelings of happiness.

When youre scared， your body also produces a chemical called oxytocin（后葉催產素）， which helps people develop relationships with one another. When people share the experience of being scared， it can make them feel closer. So， if youre at a haunted house with some pals， that experience can help solidify your friendship. “Watch people walking out of a haunted house， and youll see lots of smiles and high fives，” Kerr says.

A Healthy Scare

There is also some evidence that being scared can help a person manage stressful situations. Things like giving a presentation in front of your class or performing in a school play can make us fearful and anxious. But these experiences help build a sort of endurance to fear that makes us more confident. “You become more comfortable with the physical experience of fear， and so youre better able to work though it during tense situations，” Kerr explains.

Though some haunting may be healthy， its important to remember that people experience fear in different ways. What may be fun for one person could be too scary for another. And Kerr notes that kids younger than six or seven cant separate real and pretended， so seeing something frightening could have long and negative effects.

But for most people who are old enough， a little “boo” now and then isnt so bad.

Vocabulary

chemical n. 化學物質

substance n. 物質

haunted adj. 鬧鬼的

endurance n. 耐力

（Can you write down some words which have the similar meaning with “scary”？）

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