Several of the items on your list have straightforward explanations that are variations on 3. In partiular, horror movies and rollercoasters are a controlled means of inducing fear for the emotional response it causes; and spicy food, if by that you mean food with substantial capsaicin levels, is a controlled and completely safe means of inducing arbitrary levels of pain in order to enjoy the resulting endorphin high.
On the other hand, while I’m not familiar with Alban Berg, I voluntarily listen to “music” that probably puts his work to shame in terms of apparent unpleasantness, and intuitively suspect 1 is the most accurate explanation of this. And no, I gain no benefit of signalling status or sophistication from this, as most people’s response to said music is to wish not to speak with me.
Ah, but status-based behaviors aren’t necessarily calculated based on present circumstances. e.g. I became somewhat of a grammatical pedant growing up to gain the approval of teachers, parents, etc.; although it’s now an annoying behavior to those around me, the habit still exists.
Well, if there’s any status-based aspect to my musical tastes I’m not aware of them and can’t even imagine what they would be—some sort of status signalling by generalized breadth of taste, perhaps? But that’s pretty dodgy because there are sound reasons to expect an innate urge to try new stimuli independent of social status.
Several of the items on your list have straightforward explanations that are variations on 3. In partiular, horror movies and rollercoasters are a controlled means of inducing fear for the emotional response it causes; and spicy food, if by that you mean food with substantial capsaicin levels, is a controlled and completely safe means of inducing arbitrary levels of pain in order to enjoy the resulting endorphin high.
On the other hand, while I’m not familiar with Alban Berg, I voluntarily listen to “music” that probably puts his work to shame in terms of apparent unpleasantness, and intuitively suspect 1 is the most accurate explanation of this. And no, I gain no benefit of signalling status or sophistication from this, as most people’s response to said music is to wish not to speak with me.
Ah, but status-based behaviors aren’t necessarily calculated based on present circumstances. e.g. I became somewhat of a grammatical pedant growing up to gain the approval of teachers, parents, etc.; although it’s now an annoying behavior to those around me, the habit still exists.
Well, if there’s any status-based aspect to my musical tastes I’m not aware of them and can’t even imagine what they would be—some sort of status signalling by generalized breadth of taste, perhaps? But that’s pretty dodgy because there are sound reasons to expect an innate urge to try new stimuli independent of social status.