Clay Routledge, NDSU professor of psychology and faculty fellow at the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth, is a consultant for a new documentary series on Shudder, a streaming service for AMC.

Routledge’s role was to help the filmmakers think about why humans are drawn to myths and stories that explore ideas beyond an empirical or scientific understanding of reality.

“The series is about Hollywood horror movies that many believe are cursed because bad things happened on the set or to people involved with making the films,” Routledge said. “I consulted the filmmakers on the psychological aspects of this. I also am briefly featured in the second episode where I discuss how watching horror movies puts people in the mindset to embrace the type of intuitive thinking that makes people more open to myths.”

Routledge has published more than 100 scholarly papers and written two books – “Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource” and “Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World.” In addition, he has co-edited two books and is the lead writer of the TED-Ed animated lesson “Why Do We Feel Nostalgia”

His work has been featured in many major media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, ABC News, BBC News, CBC News, CNN, MSNBC, Men’s Health, The Atlantic and The New Yorker. Routledge is an occasional op-ed writer for the New York Times and National Review and has written articles for the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American.

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