The Tell-Tale Heart: Interoceptive Precision and Ecological Fear Experiences

Psychological theory has long suggested that interoception, or the perception of internal bodily states, plays a pivotal role in the emergence of emotions. More recent proposals suggest that interoceptive precision may specifically contribute to the amplification of fear. Although numerous laboratory studies have demonstrated connections between heart-brain interactions and emotional stimuli processing, no research has yet examined the role of interoceptive processing in real-world experiences of intense, recreational fear. In this study, we explored the relationship between cardiac interoception and ecological fear by conducting a field experiment in 265 participants, assessing their subjective fear ratings and self-reported somatic anxiety symptoms immediately before and after an immersive haunted house experience. We quantified participants' cardiac interoception using a Bayesian psychophysical method that distinguishes interoceptive sensitivity, precision, and metacognitive calibration. Our findings revealed that baseline fear and anxiety were positively associated with heart rate overestimation, while underestimation of fear (i.e., fear prediction error) correlated with enhanced interoceptive precision. We further found that ambulatory heart-rate variability measurements recording during the ride correlated positively with felt fear and anxiety symptoms. These results underscore the close inter-linkage of interoceptive precision and real-world fear experiences.