Why is darkness scary?

[lwm3398]

I have looked into pitch black.

Never again. It looks like oblivion, you can never be sure what's there...

Darkness is scary when you are scared. If you're thinking about something scary, let's say you saw The Shining and are psychologically fucked right then, the dark will be scary.

You can't know what's in the dark. The unknown is scary. It just is. So darkness is just scary. To me, and the other wimps like me.

 

[Crowghast]

It's already been mentioned, but i'm going to agree using a quote from the greatest horror writer of all time, H.P. Lovecraft.

[i\]"The oldest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest fear is the fear of the unknown."[/i]

 

[Azraellod]

What ISN'T scary about darkness? Just look at it!

Spoiler

*screams in terror*

i think it's to do with primal instincts. it is more a fear of what is lurking in the darkness.

we lost out night vision in exchange for colour vision, but most animals can see in the dark. specifically predators... so it's built in to our instincts.

now if you'll excuse me:

*screams in terror some more*

 

[axia777]

I like being in the dark, by myself. Really. I used to go into these tunnels under the city I grew up in. They were about 25 feet wide and 35 feet tall. They are part of a creek system to off shoot rain water to a river that is close by. During the summer they were refreshingly cool and dark. It was a good place to hang out and be by myself.

 

[Skeleon]

But think about that, there it is once again. It was one of the first horror games (I might be wrong here) and immediately it invented the name "Alone in the dark" because what's more scary?

Well, if you want a serious answer, there have already been some in this thread that I agree with.
Humans are, physically, pretty pathetic. We have no claws or teeth to speak of, we can't run that fast, we can't even climb like our cousins do! We... suck, at least in a direct confrontation.
This is why we needed the strength of a group as well as our "technology" to survive (i.e. pointy sticks to make up for claws/teeth, groups of hunters to make up for small size compared to a mammoth, stealth to make up for lack of speed and fire to protect us from natural enemies).
As Machines Are Us said, it's been bred into us, into our biological programming, that we have not and probably never will completely shed ourselves of, to stay together and avoid the darkness.
People who strayed from the group, left the protective fires in the night, had a higher chance of ending up as a lion's (or other carnivore's) supper and thus had a worse chance to produce offspring.
The offspring of the "scared" people had a higher chance of survival, so a certain fear of the darkness is completely logical.

 

[thiosk]

Why is darkness scary?

Because you can only hear the Tyranids, and don't know which way to run.

 

[Torque669]

Because if your walking in Daylight and some one looks at you, you dont really mind but if he did it during nighttime you'd be like "ARGH HE WANTS TO STAB ME IN THE JUGULAR". Darkness covers things and if you cant see something, most of the time you fear it. In my opinion anyway.

 

[Cakes]

We're instinctively fearful of the unknown.

 

[ckam]

The anticipation of what's within the abyss tends to make people go crazy before the revelation. The Unknown is rather scary, you have seen Pokemon Movie 3, right?

 

[ConnorCool]

its not knowing exactly whats going on, the unknown is scary

 

[atol]

I like being in the dark, by myself. Really. I used to go into these tunnels under the city I grew up in. They were about 25 feet wide and 35 feet tall. They are part of a creek system to off shoot rain water to a river that is close by. During the summer they were refreshingly cool and dark. It was a good place to hang out and be by myself.

Same, we're probably vampires.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

there is no point in fearing the darkness, just fear what's hiding inside of it.

 

[Sethzard]

To be dull, people think that there could be anything in the dark as their sense of sight is usually the one they trust most, and it is also usually the most accurate and it allows us to distinguish looks of something, so when people are deprived of sight they think that there could be anything in the dark.

 

[Tonimata]

I usually take midnight walks. Not for any reason, it's just incredibly soothing to wake up in the middle of the night and just walk through your house, the neighbourhood, etc...

In the end, you learn not to fear what your mind sees in darkness, to become more aware to what it is you think darkness hides from you, and in the end, to become part of it, as silent and indistinguishable as the next shadow casted by the moon

Oooh I feel poetic.

 

[Kazturkey]

I like the dark. It doesnt make me feel pale.

Although one odd thing is, I dont mind the sight of other peoples blood. My own blood however, is a different matter. I went for a minor operation recently and when they put the little syringe in my wrist (For the anesthetic, to cut down on time in the operating room) the sight of dark blood made me feel really, really faint.

 

[logiman]

I`m not affraid of the dark, the dark is affraid of me..

I just sleep with my lamp on so I don`t scare the dark..