Are Amnesia players adults or teens?

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I think the reason some adults might not be scared by Amnesia is becausethey're not used to playing FPS games, so that the controls become a barrier between them and the game. Since a sense of presence is created by an uninterrupted flow of information and feedback between the player and the game, their lack of fluency in FPS controls prevents them from immersing themselves and getting scared.

Definitely. I tried to show Amnesia to my Mom, because she's theoretically quite interested in games, but since she never played one before, she couldn't get into it at all. Some things just come natural to someone used to playing games - like using the mouse to look around while simultaneously changing from forward to strafe motion, so you keep walking in the same direction - but to her everything except walking in a straight line was something she had to consciously concentrate on which left no room for immersion. So much actually, that she often didn't even notice a scary sound or similar things. Add to that the fact that the first person perspective quickly made her motion-sick...

I think from a game design point of view it's really interesting to watch someone who never played a game struggle with it. It shows how much is actually taken for granted in terms of player abilities in your average game. (Not that that's a bad thing - it all depends on your target audience! I'm certainly against overly simplifying games originally meant for "hardcore" gamers.)