Halloween goosebumps, shivers and ‘skin orgasms’, and why we love to feel that frisson
- A frisson can be triggered by a scare, an emotive piece of music or a high-pitched note
- It is a remnant from a time when our fur would stand on end to make us look bigger
The couple on screen clutches and embraces, but the music that drifts over them is eerie, uneasy. Alone in a dark cinema, you feel a chill race up your spine.
Walking home after a late night, you hear footsteps behind you. And just as you notice the sound, the footsteps quicken. The hair on your forearms stands on end.
It’s goosebump season, that Halloween period that promises something sweet, laced with something scary. Some people wait all year for those thrills; others don’t have to.
The phenomenon of “chills”, provoked not by cold but by emotion or aesthetics (or a combination of both) is a sought-after commodity, both by people who seek out triggers for the feeling, known as frisson, and by scientists who study what’s going on in our brains when we get that tingle.
Some people, it turns out, feel a frisson, which has also been called a “skin orgasm,” more easily than others. You might sit through the most chilling film and never feel a thing – or get serious shivers from watching A Star is Born.