Which human screams affect us most? The answer might surprise you - CNN

If you picked alarming screams -- such as anger, fear and pain -- you'd be wrong, said Frühholz, an associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Oslo in Norway.

Instead, the study found, humans are quicker to respond to screams of delight or pleasure.

"The results of our study are surprising," Frühholz said.

"Researchers usually assume the primate and human cognitive system to be specifically tuned to detect signals of danger and threat in the environment as a mechanism of survival."

While that appears to be true in primates and other animal species, "scream communication seemed to have largely diversified in humans, and this represents a major evolutionary step," Frühholz added.

Evolutionary purpose of screams

Some screams do serve a primal evolutionary purpose -- an immediate signal of danger.

Many of us delight in those hair-raising sounds -- as proven by the success of horror films in which cinema scream queens announce the next gory plot twist.