It’s not news to those who know me that I am a huge movie buff and an avid fan of horror films. I also very much enjoy looking at art and going to art museums. In fact, an ideal day for me would probably involve a nice scary movie and a trip to the MoMA.

Researchers Kendall J. Eskine, Natalie A. Kacinik, and Jesse J. Prinz recently published a most intriguing article in the academic journal Emotion entitled Stirring Images: Fear, Not Happiness or Arousal, Makes Art More Sublime about their study that investigated “the emotional basis of sublime experiences (i.e., the experience of perceiving something that evokes feelings of astonishment and amazement) in an effort to determine which emotions underlie awe-inspiring experiences when viewing works of art” (Eskine et al.).
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