On Relishing Ugliness, Provoking Pain and Fear, and Endorphin Releases

IN ALL OF THE 8 PROPERTIES DISCUSSED BELOW, the involvement of enhanced endorphin releases, which produce a pleasant (with a “high”) morphine-like protective analgesia of the organism, and thus incline the individual to deliberately provoke corresponding stress-inducing situations, appears almost certain. And this applies both when it concerns one’s own pain and fear, and when it concerns only observing and anticipating them in other people.

1) Relishing others’ physical ugliness (interest in observing it, collecting it)

1. If I had been the owner of a circus in the 19th century, then, like the famous circus impresario Barnum, I would have liked to make money by gathering various freaks in my circus and showing them to the public. 0.82
2. I am interested in watching films about various genetic deformities. 0.74
3. Sometimes I watch, with interest and to the end, TV programs from the series “I’m ashamed of my body”—about various human deformities, tumors, and severe parasitic diseases. 0.60
4. I like (or would like) using computer programs to make ugly photos of my acquaintances—so that we could all laugh together afterward. 0.48
5. I am interested in TV programs that talk about the lives of disabled people with various severe congenital deformities. 0.46

2) Questions linked to the property “relishing others’ physical ugliness”

1. I like horror films. 0.90
2. I can derive pleasure from someone else’s bad mood. 0.88
3. When in a good mood, I like to play with people, somehow “pressing” their interests in favor of my own. 0.87
4. I would allow, for public entertainment, gladiatorial fights with fatal outcomes. 0.87
5. Others’ misfortune can be funny and lift my mood. 0.87
6. I love and respect snakes for their habits. 0.86
7. Pain for me is often associated with bliss that rolls in after it. 0.86
8. If there is no stress or some kind of physical exertion at the limit of exhaustion, I begin to feel lazy and depressed. 0.86
9. I find it interesting and amusing to watch how a person under hypnosis has needles inserted into their body or people stand on their stomach, and they do not feel pain. 0.85
10. Sometimes I want my partner to punish me. 0.84
11. After experiencing pain, my thinking for some time becomes more purposeful and creative. 0.83
12. I like truly frightening horror films that give “goosebumps.” 0.83
13. As a rule, the sounds of loud crying or a scandal attract me, awakening my interest. 0.78
14. I can quite calmly and even for a long time listen to various lies from others without reacting internally. 0.77
15. I like jokes that sometimes seem rude and inappropriate to some people. 0.75

16. I am invariably repelled by any manifestations of laziness, lying, cruelty, and injustice in people. -0.90
17. I treat with contempt those cultures where offending the weak is considered a virtue. -0.85
18. I feel disgust toward any dishonesty in people. -0.81
19. It is true that I cannot tolerate loud music that hits the ears. -0.78

Attention is drawn to the positive connection between interest in physical deformities, love of horror films, and a masochistic passion for experiencing pain, which is based on an increased release of endorphins in response to pain or even its imagined anticipation, giving the subject a sensation of physically felt pleasure, bliss.

3) Love of horror films

1. Others’ misfortune can be funny and lift my mood. 0.94
2. I like horror films. 0.92
3. I find it interesting and amusing to watch how a person under hypnosis has needles inserted into their body or people stand on their stomach, and they do not feel pain. 0.91
4. I like truly frightening horror films that give “goosebumps.” 0.88

4) Pleasure from observing others’ negative emotions, including fear (probable connection with increased endorphin releases in response to observing reactions of fear, pain, and other negative emotions in other people)

1. At times, others’ fear gives me satisfaction. 0.96
2. At times, I like seeing others’ fear. 0.96
3. I like offending certain people—at times I enjoy bringing them to emotional distress and even to tears. 0.95
4. I derive pleasure from tormenting some people around me. 0.94
5. At times, I like causing another person pain. 0.94
6. I feel pleasure seeing an enemy suffer. 0.93
7. Victory in a game is pleasant because it humiliates the opponent. 0.93
8. I can derive pleasure from someone else’s bad mood. 0.92
9. I think that compared to other people, I adapt quite easily to an atmosphere of quarrels, grievances, and conflicts. 0.91
10. I like it when people are afraid of me. 0.91
11. Sometimes I like bringing a person to despondency. 0.90
12. Others’ misfortune can be funny and lift my mood. 0.90
13. It is possible that in my behavior certain notes of sadism sometimes break through. 0.89
14. To be honest, at times I am curious to observe others’ physical pain. 0.89
15. In childhood I liked to harm someone or break something. 0.89
16. I like reading about the background of various lurking dangers, about the history of major accidents and disasters. 0.86

17. I try to ensure that no one feels offended by my actions. -0.92
18. I find unpleasant and even disgusting the feelings that remain after any family quarrel. -0.89
19. I am more interested in people who radiate: 1) Negative emotions 5) Positive emotions -0.83

5) Endorphin “high” in response to pain, as well as its anticipation

1. Fear can be “sweet,” at least for me—you experience fear, and then you feel bliss spreading through your body. 0.93
2. Pain for me is often associated with bliss that rolls in after it. 0.90
3. After experiencing pain, my thinking for some time becomes more purposeful and creative. 0.89
4. Sometimes I want my partner to punish me. 0.88
5. After experienced pain, I almost always have a pleasant-blissful “aftertaste.” 0.86
6. Sometimes I like hurting myself. 0.83
7. After experiencing horror, I often feel a “rebound” in the form of blissful joy spreading through all parts of the body. 0.82
8. If there is no stress or some kind of physical exertion at the limit of exhaustion, I begin to feel lazy and depressed. 0.80
9. At times I feel interest in painful and humiliating sensations, experiencing a certain “high” while going through them. 0.80
10. There are masochistic tendencies in me. 0.77
11. Sometimes I like it when I am humiliated and even subjected to moderate pain. 0.76
12. I like all kinds of extreme experiences with initially frightening trembling—afterward I feel relaxed, pleasant, and confident for a long time, and without it I easily fall into dull melancholy. 0.74

13. Avoiding pain is usually more important to me than experiencing pleasure. -0.81

6) Moral auto-aggression — striving for self-humiliation and self-blame

1. There is a certain masochism in my character: at times I like engaging in self-deprecation. 0.86
2. Sometimes I “pour” dirty words over myself—I am this and that. 0.84
3. Sometimes I shower myself with insults. 0.82
4. If something goes wrong, I tend to blame and reproach myself more often, directing aggression toward myself. 0.66
5. Sometimes it is pleasant to feel my subordination and experience humiliation. 0.63

7) Physical auto-aggression — striving to inflict physical pain on oneself and to self-harm (damage to one’s body—cuts, burns, etc.)

1. As punishment for something, I can sometimes painfully pinch myself or even make some kind of mark or cut on my skin—so that I will not forget in the future. 0.91
2. I am prone to aggressive thoughts directed at myself. 0.90
3. It has happened that I deliberately burned my skin with cigarette butts. 0.90
4. In my life I have had suicidal thoughts several times. 0.88
5. It has happened that I deliberately cut my hands with a razor or knife. 0.75

8) Striving for the exhilarating thrill from experiencing fear in situations of physical risk

1. I am drawn to situations of daring, luck, nerve-exciting risk “on the edge.” 0.98
2. I am interested in situations with heightened excitement, whether parachute jumping, rock climbing, or intense passionate relationships. 0.97
3. I am often attracted to extreme experiences with their pleasant азарт and sense of victory. 0.95
4. I like all kinds of extreme experiences with initially frightening trembling—afterward I feel relaxed, pleasant, and confident for a long time, and without it I easily fall into dull melancholy. 0.95
5. Undertaking something risky is the best way to combat boredom. 0.94
6. At the same time, it is true that I am a balanced person, but I like to take risks and get a drive from it. 0.93
7. Even in adulthood, I have done quite risky things purely for pleasure 0.92
8. I am ready to boldly engage in activities such as parachute jumping or motorcycle racing. 0.92
9. I like experimenting with new and unusual sensations. 0.92
10. Random confrontations with strangers usually give me pleasure. 0.92
11. I like very fast driving or riding extreme amusement rides. 0.83
12. Fear can be “sweet,” at least for me—you experience fear, and then you feel bliss spreading through your body. 0.83
13. In sports activities I tend to take risks. 0.82

14. I do not like risky activities. -0.95
15. I avoid risk in everything. -0.92
16. I think I have a very strong instinct for self-preservation. -0.87
17. I do not understand risk and various impulsive intense sensations, and those who like them should be strongly restricted in life. -0.83

CONCLUSION:

An increase in endorphin release (see the final 9th table with averaging of the profiles of all 8 clusters) is primarily associated with decisiveness, and secondarily with the poles of irrationality, declatimity, and merriness. The champions of the socion in terms of presumed endorphin release into the blood (in response to stress markers, one’s own or others’) are ILI, IEI, SLE. The “anti-champion” is LSE. Endorphin release provides analgesia of the organism analogous to the action of exogenous morphine, and also stimulates the dopaminergic “pleasure center” of the brain, which leads to the formation of behavioral dependence on stress-inducing situations. In particular, in a number of cases this leads to the formation of patterns of masochistic and sadistic behavior. In the case of masochism, the trigger for endorphin release is one’s own pain, and in the case of sadism—the observation of another’s. Other types of dependencies may include attraction to high-risk life-threatening situations and the associated fear (for example, train “hooking”), provoking anger and bad mood in interlocutors (trolling), etc.