novel coronavirus in reality.But, a group of scholars argue in a recent paper, fans of horror and pandemic movies and the “morbidly curious” show better psychological resilience in relation to the real pandemic.“Exposure to frightening fictions allow audiences to practice effective coping strategies that can be beneficial in real-world situations,” they write in ‘Pandemic Practice: Horror Fans and Morbidly Curious Individuals Are More Psychologically Resilient During the COVID-19 Pandemic.’It is a ‘preprint,’ a term for a scholarly paper published before formal peer review.“Stories allow the audience to explore the dynamics of an imagined version of the world at very little cost, making stories particularly good vectors for learning about.