Glasgow trapeze study reveals why fear can be good for us

The research adds to evidence that the "good stress" released by doing things that scare us can boost wellbeing, while a lack of exposure to risk in modern life may be psychologically harmful - increasing problems with perfectionism and fear of failure.

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The investigation was led by Glasgow University psychologist, Dr Chiara Horlin, who will present the findings later today as part of the Glasgow Science Festival.

Dr Horlin, whose husband is a circus performer, was inspired after coming across a previous study by two Dutch psychologists which explored how riding a rollercoaster affected lung function in people with asthma.

She said: "These people who they put on rollercoasters had breathing difficulties, so they measured their lung function before and after.

"Although the screaming and the excitement and the physical stress of being on the rollercoaster actually did reduced their lung function, they felt they could breathe better, which really struck me as quite odd.

"The fun and the positive emotional experience of being on the rollercoaster shifted their perspective."

Despite actually experiencing reduced lung function, rollercoaster riders with asthma said they felt less short of breath (Image: Newsquest)

The phenomenon is something known as eustress - a beneficial form of stress associated with feelings of happiness, euphoria and accomplishment.

Unlike distress - the negative form which triggers the body to pump out the stress hormone, cortisol - eustress has been linked to positive physical and emotional outcomes.

Dr Horlin decided to test whether exposing volunteers to other hair-raising activities might offer a "missing link" in tackling mental health issues among young people.

With the help of the Community Circus Paisley, she set about recruiting around 100 students willing to learn the flying trapeze.

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"There are a lot of things in the circus that are scary, but flying trapeze is one of the bigger ones," she said.

"You're on an eight-metre [26ft] high platform, and you have to swing out into space with nothing but a net below you. That's pretty intimidating."

Participants were in their 20s or 30s, but none had tried anything like it before.

Over the course of around eight months, from September 2019 to March 2020, they were split into groups of 10 and put through a series of increasingly daunting exercises.

Around 100 students from Glasgow University took part in study, with positive results (Image: Herald&Times)

The first step saw them swing out on their own, attached to a safety line, before they would be told to 'let go' - a "sort of trust exercise".

Next, they had to swing out again but this time tuck their legs over the bar so that they would end up upside down.

In the final round they had to let go of the bar so that they could be caught in mid-air by a professional trapeze artist.

To Dr Horlin's surprise, nearly all the volunteers achieved all three steps.

She said: "It was a very stressful experience for a many of them - they expressed a lot of nerves, anxiety, and apprehension before they did it. Afterwards, the balance shifted exhilaration and excitement.

"But the most interesting thing was the long term benefits. We did a follow up a week later to see how sustained things were.

"People were taking photos and videos on their phones and what we found was that sharing things on social media and with their families helped to reinforce a lot of these positive effects.

"They felt proud, and that was consolidated by a lot of other people saying how 'amazing' it was.

"We had people say things like 'I had a stressful exam coming up but on the balance of things it's a lot less stressful than flying trapeze'.

"They'd say 'if I can cope with that I can cope with anything'. It seemed to really trigger a growing sense of resilience in terms of what they could achieve.

"We had a couple of other people who volunteered that they had quite extreme phobias.

"One had a phobia of public transport and the day after completing the study got on a bus for the first time."

Volunteers in the study gradually increased the difficulty of the jumps (Image: Newsquest)

More recently, Dr Horlin has repeated the experiment with adolescents aged 10 to 17 who attended weekly workshops with Paisley Community Circus to learn a variety of skills including juggling, aerial silks, and tightwire walking. 

At the end of the course, in March this year, their 'stressor' was to perform in a show for friends and family. 

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Dr Horlin said a lack of exposure to danger - something humans were primed for by evolution - may be leaving a gap in young people's development. 

"We all become more risk averse as we get older, but when we talk about things like 'helicopter parenting' and risk aversion, I do think that has increased," she said.

"There's definitely a call for supportive and really controlled risk-taking behaviour to give people those opportunities to experience stress in a positive way, but also to fail in a supportive environment and not to be so cautious of it.

"I think it can help to relieve anxiety and perfectionism."

'Flying through Fear', part of the Glasgow Science Festival, will take place at Community Circus Paisley on June 10