(CNN) — Do you love to scream at Halloween? Or are you, like me, a certified scaredy-cat who avoids haunted houses and scary movies because my sleep depends on it?

How you react to terror may lie in how you engage the world, according to Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center in Newport Beach, California, which conducts research to promote the use of media for positive social change.

“Sensation-seeking individuals often enjoy horror because it provides safe thrills and novelty,” Rutledge said in an email. She is also a professor emerita of media psychology at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, who authored “ Exploring Positive Psychology : The Science of Happiness and Well-Being.”

“Empathetic people tend to absorb the feelings,

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