this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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It's weird that we enjoy stimulating our fear response (lemmy.ca)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts
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What would aliens think if they leaned we evolved fear as a survival mechanism, but we intentionally seek out situations that trigger our fear response, for fun?

Horror movies, extreme sports, thrill-seeking, it's all weird.

Edit
Changed the title and added an extra line to make it clear I'm talking about the fear response, and not specifically about extreme sports

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

When the brain is evolved to recognize immediate and present dangers and react to them, an absence of those dangers (which is true for most of us, most of the time) means that "something is wrong."

Injecting pseudo-dangers, or purposefully placing oneself in actual danger, closes the "danger gap."