{"id":259516,"date":"2024-09-12T16:31:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T16:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/12\/our-fascination-with-monsters-tells-us-a-lot-about-ourselves\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:11:21","slug":"our-fascination-with-monsters-tells-us-a-lot-about-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/12\/our-fascination-with-monsters-tells-us-a-lot-about-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Our fascination with monsters tells us a lot about ourselves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"ArticleImage\">\n<div class=\"Image__Wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"Image\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" alt=\"New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1288px) 837px, (min-width: 1024px) calc(57.5vw + 55px), (min-width: 415px) calc(100vw - 40px), calc(70vw + 74px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=837 837w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=900 900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1003 1003w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1100 1100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1300 1300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1400 1400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1500 1500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1600 1600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1674 1674w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1700 1700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1800 1800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=1900 1900w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/10115920\/SEI_220817098.jpg?width=2006 2006w\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-image-context=\"Article\" data-image-id=\"2447320\" data-caption=\"\" data-credit=\"Elaine Knox\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>As frightening as monsters are, they have always captivated us. From chimeras and hydras to bunyips and golems, creatures have emerged from our imaginations throughout history and across cultures. Today, they explode onto our cinema screens with incredible regularity. Given how scary monsters can be, it seems paradoxical that we keep making them. In fact, they are actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg22029450-900-the-night-when-darkness-falls-fear-rises\/\">very important<\/a> to us, and are deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and psychology.<\/p>\n<p>Monsters are the fantastical descendants of our co-evolution with predatory animals: they are wired into our neurocircuitry. Snakes, for example, were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/7234304_Snakes_as_agents_of_evolutionary_change_in_primate_brains\">some of<\/a> our ancestors\u2019 first deadly\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/mg26335083-900-our-fascination-with-monsters-tells-us-a-lot-about-ourselves\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] As frightening as monsters are, they have always captivated us. From chimeras and hydras to bunyips and golems, creatures have emerged from our imaginations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":259517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}