Why is darkness scary?

[Radeonx]

It's not necessarily the Dark itself, per se. More so the fact that humans HATE the unknown. With a passion.

I don't. But then again, I'm the ninja god.

Funny you should say that. Because as you see, underneath all of my hockey masks and sporty jackets, I look like this:

To answer what you're probably thinking right now: Yes. It is, in fact, on.

You know, we could, and don't think of this as blasphemy, work together. To fight the robots. Fucking robots, they made my toast not toasty!

 

[Hazy]

It's not necessarily the Dark itself, per se. More so the fact that humans HATE the unknown. With a passion.

I don't. But then again, I'm the ninja god.

Funny you should say that. Because as you see, underneath all of my hockey masks and sporty jackets, I look like this:
-Snip-

To answer what you're probably thinking right now: Yes. It is, in fact, on.

You know, we could, and don't think of this as blasphemy, work together. To fight the robots. Fucking robots, they made my toast not toasty!

[small]Fighting the robots, I mean.[/small]

 

[AOTA]

although pretty much all of this has been said already...

We fear the darkness because we can see what is in it, therefore making it unknown.
since, in the beginning of our species, we were not always on the top of the food chain, it became our natural instinct to fear something unknown. since we can see in the dark it is automatically unknown to use and thus instinctively scary.

 

[Cody211282]

because you cant see anything and you dont know what is there if you cant see it

 

[Doktor Merkwurdigliebe]

It dates back to the times when we were busy thinking how to operate a stick, and there were a lot of nasty things hiding in the night. Therefore instinct helped us hide like cowards in our caves and gave us a possibility of actually surviving the night. Fear of the dark is something, that we got from our ancestors - they needed it back then more then we now, but it is still useful with things like developing childhood traumas.

 

[crudus]

I personally think it is evolutionary. People don't want to go where they are uncomfortable so if the dark makes them uncomfortable then (cavemen) will stay in the cave at night with light. If there was a caveman that liked or didn't mind the dark then he/she will quickly die.

 

[Sgtkillalot0]

A. Becuase people do not like not knowing things (hidden in darkness)
B. Becuase 'Heaven' is signified as 'the light', and 'Hell' is 'dark and evil'

 

[Shadowfaze]

Darkness is scary because humans naturally fear the unknown.

 

[stone0042]

The majority of fears stem from an aversion to the unknown, the intimidating and the uncertain.

What sums up these attributes better than darkness?

This to a t, exactly what i was going to say.

 

[Sassafrass]

It's when all the monsters and trolls come out.
Or just the fact you can't see anything and if something jumps at you in the dark, you have no idea what it is and therefore wonder if it's something like a moth or something more sinister, like me.

 

[feather240]

It's because the darkness represents everything. You don't know what's in their, and some people don't want too know...

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I would imagine because darkness represents an unknown and the natural tendency of human beings is to fear the unknown.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

I'm no psychology major, but I'm guessing it's due to a primal fear of the unknown. As humans we can't see very well in the dark, because of this we can't tell when things may indeed be lurking in the places that we're blind to. Avoiding the unknown is a survival instinct of most animals, if your not ready to defend yourself you likely wont survive a potential attack. Therfor, we try to avoid the dark. In most cases it is irrational and instinctive, but that's how it is.(Like I said, this is a semi-educated guess) Personally I prefer darkness to light, it's calm, relaxing. I'm one of those people who has no problems walking on dark streets at night.

 

[Last of the Chinchillas]

Because that's where the grues live, and if you're there, then you're more likely to be eaten by one.

 

[comrade.paddy]

Because it's human nature to fear what is unknown to the mind, and due to our eyesight being cone based and reliant on light, darkness creates an atmosphere of the unknown. Therefore as the subconscious recognizes that, it instinctively creates a sense of fear as fear is a basic instinct which is created by most intelligent organisms as a response to potential danger to heighten the senses for if this danger presents itself. Also as it "blankets" one of our most relied upon senses practically handicapping us which again relates to the mind creating fear to once again heighten those other senses.

And of course how could i have forgotten that you would be likely to be eaten by a grue as mentioned above.

 

[lacktheknack]

You can't see through it. Cue the easily terrified imagination process.

EDIT: Also because I have played Penumbra: Black Plague. So there.

 

[Beebo2579]

It's all psychological. It's a fear of the unknown, the fear of things that you cannot see, be they benevolent or not. It's true that we no longer have to fear Predators attacking us, but if you look at the human species, we've been around for a VERY short time, cosmically speaking, and we've been sentient for an even shorter time, and so we're still just coming out of our primal selves. Therefore, we still have many instinctual habits, those animal instincts are still there. Our instincts don't like the dark because it thinks there might be a predator in there waiting to eat us, especially because the dark is associated with nighttime, and many predators were nocturnal. Our instincts still think there are dangerous living things all around, and is still trying to help us survive, even though we don't really need it when we're older. It's like a little person sitting on our shoulder and saying "Hey! Watch out! There could be something in there!"
And that is my psychological and extremely nerdy analysis on the fear of darkness.

 

[Numb1lp]

Riddick isn't scared of the dark...

 

[Last of the Chinchillas]

Riddick isn't scared of the dark...

That's because for him, the darkness is where he shines. The rest of us are pretty screwed.

 

[Eldarion]

It is scary because I hide in it, waiting to strike.

Cookie for obvious reference.