Morbid Curiosity Research Articles

Structural Relationship Between Dark Personality Traits, Morbid Curiosity, and Cognitive Abilities with Addiction Vulnerability

Background: Drug addiction represents a global crisis with increasing rates, particularly in regions like Iran. The widespread impact of addiction on individuals and societies underscores the need for comprehensive research. Providing further context on the global and national scope of the addiction crisis would strengthen the introduction. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the structural relationship between dark personality traits, morbid curiosity, and cognitive abilities, and their influence on vulnerability to addiction among Zanjan University students during the 2020 - 2021 academic year. Methods: A total of 479 students from Zanjan University were selected through a cluster random sampling method during the 2020 - 2021 academic year. The study utilized the Addiction Vulnerability Scale (Zinali), the Dark Personality Traits Scale (Webster and Johnson), the Morbid Curiosity Scale (Scrivener), and a Cognitive Abilities Scale. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling were employed, using tools such as Pearson correlation and structural equations through SPSS 25 and AMOS 24 software. Results: The findings indicated that the model proposed by the researchers demonstrated an acceptable fit. Furthermore, a significant structural relationship was observed between dark personality traits and vulnerability to addiction (P < 0.05) with a path coefficient of 0.37. Additionally, the structural relationship between morbid curiosity and addiction vulnerability was significant (P < 0.05) with a path coefficient of 0.31. Cognitive abilities also had a significant structural relationship with vulnerability to addiction (P < 0.05) with a path coefficient of 0.46. Conclusions: The results of this study provide important insights for the prevention and early identification of addiction in vulnerable populations. These findings have practical applications for educational institutions, addiction treatment centers, and correctional facilities.

Co-Innovation in Dark Tourism: Quality and Type of Tourists’ Ideas Before vs. After the Visit

Building on prior findings on co-innovation and dark tourism, this research examined if and how the experiential stage (before vs. after the visit) affects the quality and the type of ideas provided by tourists. Four hundred visitors shared new ideas for a dark tourism experience, in Medellin (Colombia). Half of the sample was interviewed before visiting the site and the other half after the visit. The results show that before the visit (i.e. less information: higher cognitive flexibility and lower functional fixedness) the respondents provided more original ideas. After the visit, their ideas were rated higher in terms of feasibility and persuasiveness. Furthermore, tourists showed higher morbid curiosity before the visit, leading to morbid ideas. After the visit, curiosity about history and empathy increased, leading to educational ideas. The results can help managers to set goals for co-innovation at dark tourism sites, by considering the different experiential stages.

The Relationship Between Internalizing Syndromes and Morbid Curiosity and Cyber Aggression in Adolescents

Background: Adolescence is a period marked by biological, psychological and behavioral changes, which evoke intense emotional responses in teenagers. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between internalizing syndromes and morbid curiosity, and cyber aggression among adolescents. Methods: The study population included all male and female middle and high school students in District 3 of Tehran during the academic year 2021-2022. A statistical sample of 375 individuals was randomly selected through cluster sampling. The research utilized the cyber aggression scale for adolescents by Alvarez-Garcia cyber aggression scale for adolescents, the Achenbach and Edelbrock internalizing syndromes scale and the scrivener morbid curiosity scale. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software, version 26 and AMOS software, version 24. Results: The results showed a significant structural relationship between internalizing syndromes and cyber aggression, as well as between morbid curiosity and cyber aggression. However, internalizing syndromes and morbid curiosity accounted for only 4.8% of cyber aggression. Conclusion: These findings have implications for adolescent counseling, psychotherapy, education, training and correctional and rehabilitation centers.

Sex Differences in Recreational Fear

In this article I examine sex differences related to recreational fear, including theory on the evolved fear system, morbid curiosity, and disgust sensitivity. I use an evolutionary framework to argue that recreational fear can appeal specifically to women, with a focus on media preferences. Through an analysis of the true crime podcast My Favorite Murder and the slasher movie Halloween, I argue that both examples are popular with women, because they provide recreational fear in a way that aligns with women’s fears, curiosity, and threshold for disgust. They are relatively less scary than many other forms of frightening media. They also center around the fear of hostile conspecifics, which is common for women to experience. Because of this, they appeal to women’s morbid curiosity towards dangerous people and their motives. Lastly, they are careful to avoid excessive disgusting stimuli that could discourage a female audience from engaging.

Chernobyl as Pandemic Practice

This article seeks to explain the appeal of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl during the COVID-19 pandemic by using simulation theory and morbid curiosity. Chernobyl’s main appeal is that it offers viewers a better source of negative emotions compared to the nebulous anxiety caused by the pandemic. Chernobyl achieves this by simulating a threat with certain similarities to a virus but which is made less unknown and, in turn, less anxiety-inducing. The threat is made less unknown mainly through the use of visual and auditory threat cues. Furthermore, morbid imagery and information appeal to morbidly curious viewers by providing salient knowledge about the effects of an invisible, airborne threat on the human body. The inclusion of authentic phone calls and a newscast further adds to the morbid appeal of the miniseries. Lastly, the fact that Chernobyl aired just before the pandemic in an increasingly post-truth world only made it more relevant.

THE SPECTACLE OF HISTORICAL TRAUMA OF BLACK BODIES IN AMERICA: SUBJECTIVITY, ABJECTION, AND COMMODIFICATION OF THE WHITE/BLACK GAZE

In 1994, Elizabeth Alexander's”'Can you be Black and Look at This?’: Reading the Rodney King Video(s)” was published in The New Yorker magazine. Alexander focuses on the ways in which Black bodies have been the focal point of public pain, torture, and humiliation for centuries. These public lynchings, whippings, and other forms of physical abuse leading to maiming and death have been elements central to the entertainment for the racial status quo. Alexander's essay also focuses on the ways in which there has always been a “Black gaze” bearing witness to the decimation of other Black bodies--- the legacy of which leads to a continued cycle of both psychological and historic trauma that is (re)visited over and over again. Of course, with the prevalence of technology now a norm, such incidents of recorded violence are part of life in America. As the United States' greatest cancer, racism, continues to be a root cause of this violence, neither the killing of Blacks nor survivors' consciousness will be healed; and worse, the spectacle of racial violence will continue to perpetuate victims on various levels: 1) as victims directly tied to such violence and 2) as witnesses to said violence. My proposed essay focuses on the tragedy of Black bodies as spectacles of public pain---whether they are viewed as victims, as specimens of morbid curiosity, or as receptacles of displaced hate and disgust; and even as supposed rightly displays of justices incurred, simply because the body in question is Black (“They got what they deserved. They should have just pulled over.”). I will focus on various, very public historical and modern-day lynchings, from Emmett Till to George Floyd, and explore the cause and effects against Blacks in America. Ultimately, the essay poses the following questions: who is the monster, who are the victims? And at what cost will this continuum perpetuate the legacy of trauma of the American Black population?

The role of excitement and enjoyment through subjective evaluation of horror film scenes

The popularity of the horror genre is constantly increasing and still has not reached its peak. As a recreational activity, people watch horror movies in pursuit of excitement and enjoyment. However, we still do not know what traits make people seek out this type of increase in arousal (excitement) and why they find it desirable (enjoyment). Consequently, in this study, we sought to identify observer-related factors that allows consumption of horror content as a recreational activity. Participants (N = 558) answered questions about movie-watching habits, completed measures of cognitive emotion regulation, sensation seeking, paranormal beliefs, morbid curiosity, disgust sensitivity, and rated short scenes from horror movies on dimensions of excitement, enjoyment, disgust, fearfulness, and realness. Our findings suggest that the predictors of excitement and enjoyment are slightly different. Perceived disgust negatively affected enjoyment but did not influence to excitement. Further, both excitement and enjoyment were positively predicted by fearfulness and realness ratings of the scenes, and morbid curiosity. Paranormal beliefs, sensation seeking, disgust sensitivity, anxiety, and emotion regulation strategies were not associated with excitement and enjoyment. Future studies should make a distinction between excitement and enjoyment as they are equally important factors with slightly different backgrounds in recreational fear.

Validity and reliability of persian version of morbid curiosity scale in students

Background. The success of horror films, the attention to violent crimes and the prevalence of violence in the news show that morbid curiosity is a common psychological trait. However, research on morbid curiosity is largely absent in the psychological research literature. one of the reasons being the lack of a suitable Scale for Iranian society. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of the Persian version of the Morbid Curiosity Scale. Methods. The research design was descriptive factor analysis and the statistical population of the study was all students of Zanjan University in the academic year 1400-1401, from which 500 people were selected by cluster sampling. For the study, Morbid Curiosity Scale was used. Results. The results showed that Cronbach's alpha for the subscales of the Minds of Dangerous People is 0.79, Body Violation is 0.81, Supernatural Danger is 0.79, and Interpersonal Violence is 0.80 and the total scale is 0.85. The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis also confirmed the significant relationship between explicit variables and latent structures and showed that the four-factor structure has a good fit in the samples. Conclusion. The morbid curiosity scale among students has good reliability and validity and the use of this scale in future research is reliable. Practical Implications. The findings of this research can be used in psychotherapy, psychological research, media psychology, and advertising psychology.

Curious about threats: Morbid curiosity and interest in conspiracy theories in US adults.

Conspiracy theories allege secret plots between two or more powerful actors to achieve an outcome, sometimes explaining important events or proposing alternative understandings of reality in opposition to mainstream accounts, and commonly highlight the threat presented by the plot and its conspirators. Research in psychology proposes that belief in conspiracy theories is motivated by a desire to understand threats and is predicted by increased anxiety. Morbid curiosity describes the tendency to seek out information about threatening or dangerous situations and is associated with an interest in threat-related entertainment and increased anxiety. Across three studies, we investigated the relationship between morbid curiosity and conspiracy theories in US-based samples. We found that higher trait morbid curiosity was associated with higher general conspiracist beliefs (Study 1) and the perceived threat of conspiratorial explanations of events (Study 2). Using a behavioural choice paradigm, we found that participants who chose to investigate morbidly curious stimuli were more likely to choose to learn about conspiratorial explanations for events (Study 3). Greater curiosity about the minds of dangerous people was consistently the strongest predictor of conspiratorial ideation and interest. These results suggest that morbid curiosity is an important but hitherto unstudied predictor of conspiratorial interest and belief.

Measurement invariance and latent mean differences of the morbid curiosity scale (MCS) across the United States and China

In recent years, there has been a growing body of research focusing on morbid curiosity. However, the development of measurement tools has been slow, with only two scales available. Compared to the unidimensional scale of Curiosity About Morbid Events (CAME) proposed by Zuckerman and Little (1986), the recently developed four-factor Morbid Curiosity Scale (MCS) by Scrivner (2021) demonstrates a stable factor structure and good reliability and validity. As the time since the development of this scale is relatively short, its measurement properties have not been widely evaluated. Therefore, this study used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to validate the factor structure of the MCS in the Chinese cultural context, and the results supported the four-factor structure of the MCS. Additionally, we established partial scalar invariance of the MCS between Chinese (N = 663) and American (N = 330) cultures, and further analyzed cultural differences in morbid curiosity using latent mean comparison. The results revealed that Chinese individuals had a lower motivation for understanding the minds of dangerous people. This study validated the four-factor Morbid Curiosity Scale across different cultures for the first time, promoting the generalizability of the four-factor MCS and suggesting its potential for use in a wide range of cultural backgrounds. These findings contribute to enriching cross-cultural research on morbid curiosity and its associated psychological factors.

A multivariate brain signature for reward

The processing of reinforcers and punishers is crucial to adapt to an ever changing environment and its dysregulation is prevalent in mental health and substance use disorders. While many human brain measures related to reward have been based on activity in individual brain regions, recent studies indicate that many affective and motivational processes are encoded in distributed systems that span multiple regions. Consequently, decoding these processes using individual regions yields small effect sizes and limited reliability, whereas predictive models based on distributed patterns yield larger effect sizes and excellent reliability. To create such a predictive model for the processes of rewards and losses, termed the Brain Reward Signature (BRS), we trained a model to predict the signed magnitude of monetary rewards on the Monetary Incentive Delay task (MID; N = 39) and achieved a highly significant decoding performance (92% for decoding rewards versus losses). We subsequently demonstrate the generalizability of our signature on another version of the MID in a different sample (92% decoding accuracy; N = 12) and on a gambling task from a large sample (73% decoding accuracy, N = 1084). We further provided preliminary data to characterize the specificity of the signature by illustrating that the signature map generates estimates that significantly differ between rewarding and negative feedback (92% decoding accuracy) but do not differ for conditions that differ in disgust rather than reward in a novel Disgust-Delay Task (N = 39). Finally, we show that passively viewing positive and negatively valenced facial expressions loads positively on our signature, in line with previous studies on morbid curiosity. We thus created a BRS that can accurately predict brain responses to rewards and losses in active decision making tasks, and that possibly relates to information seeking in passive observational tasks.

Right Brain: Cogwheels and Crystals.

"Cogwheels and Crystals" is a reflection on how difficult it was to see a patient with Parkinson disease in the office as the daughter of a man with the same diagnosis. The immediate challenge was maintaining composure and professionalism, fighting the urge to stay blissfully unaware. The poem explores my feelings as I set out to perform a thorough interview similar to any other: discomfort with confronting potential future realities, reminders of the ways my father's disease limited his involvement in my childhood, and guilt for perhaps not caring for him enough as I spend my days caring for others with similar struggles.he is here today, fidgeting, can't sit still,my crystal ball.i look though i don't want to.my white coat feels stiff, rigid on my body andthe cogwheels begin cranking restlessly in my head.he is here today, hand trembling as he adjusts his glasses.i do not wish to fast-forward to The End of my father,but my crystal ball is here today.i am tasked with asking him to tell me about the things i want to hide from.i close my eyes for a moment before i begin,and i am a small child again doing homework on the kitchen table.the smell of indian spices cooking is quite strong to my sister and me, but my dad is none the wiser; something we called a quirk.and then i am in high school proud in my gown, tassel hanging.we are late because my dad is struggling to tie his shoes. he can barely get the spoon from the bowl to his mouth at the reception.and then i am back herei don't want to see how this ends.my crystal ball is here today.it feels like morbid curiosity; i ask him details,about how his medications are failing, about how he cannot move his body to eat, bathe, wear his clothes. his voice is a whisper.i wonder how long before my dad loses his voice.how long until he gets to this part?i counsel and send my crystal ball away, heart heavy,and immediately call my dad.i stick my hand in my coat pocket, it sinksand i sink into a chairi don't tell him that i've seen the end.is he talking a little softer than usual?i ask him cordial questions, about work and weatherand hang up before he realizes i am cryingabout cogwheels and crystals.

Morbid curiosity for music containing violent themes

Research suggests that engagement with music containing violent themes (e.g., extreme metal, rap) often results in positive psychosocial outcomes for fans. However, it is not clear why fans are attracted to ‘violent’ music in the first place. Experiment 1 (N = 146) examined whether trait morbid curiosity is associated with fans' self-reported consumption of music containing violent themes. Experiment 2 (N = 96) presented short excerpts of extreme metal and rap music with or without violent themes to investigate whether individual differences in morbid curiosity predict listeners' curiosity towards, enjoyment of, and desire to further engage with novel music with violent themes. Both experiments supported predictions: (1) fans of violently themed music exhibited greater morbid curiosity than fans of non-violently themed music; (2) morbid curiosity significantly predicted the consumption and enjoyment of music containing violent themes; (3) fans and non-fans' intentions to further engage with novel music containing violent themes were significantly predicted by individual differences in the prevalence and magnitude of morbid curiosity. Findings suggest that trait morbid curiosity is an important factor in fans' initial motivation to listen to and subsequently enjoy music containing violent themes. Implications for theories describing how fans derive positive psychosocial outcomes from media violence are discussed.

The importance of an exaggerated attention bottleneck for understanding psychopathy.

The psychopath has long captured the imagination. A name such as Ted Bundy evokes a morbid curiosity. The crimes committed by Bundy are so cruel that it is hard to imagine how someone could do such things. In this review we discuss evidence that exaggeration in an attention bottleneck is one mechanism that makes it possible for psychopathic individuals to be adept at focusing on a single stimulus feature or goal but struggle to process multiple streams of information simultaneously. This exaggeration may partly explain the behavioral, affective, and social deficits that are apparent among psychopathic individuals. Further research on this attentional mechanism may promote a science that adequately captures the complexity of psychopathic behavior and offers new avenues for intervention.

Why frightening imaginary worlds? Morbid curiosity and the learning potential of horror.

In addition to satisfying a predisposition for exploration, fiction with imaginary worlds may also appeal to morbid curiosity, an adaptive motivation to seek out information about dangerous situations. Most imaginary worlds contain narrative elements of danger, and immersion in such worlds may provide people with information that would be costly to acquire in the real world.

The psychology of morbid curiosity: Development and initial validation of the morbid curiosity scale

The success of horror films, popularity of true crime, and prevalence of violence in the news implies that morbid curiosity is a common psychological trait. However, research on morbid curiosity is largely absent from the psychological literature. In this paper, I present a psychometric tool for assessing morbid curiosity, defined as a motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena, and use it to investigate the psychological nature of morbid curiosity. In studies 1 and 2 (ntotal = 1370), the Morbid Curiosity Scale was developed and its relationship to personality was assessed. Morbidly curious individuals were rebellious, socially curious, and low in animal reminder disgust. Study 3 (n = 317) demonstrated that trait morbid curiosity is stable over 4–6 weeks and that morbidly curious individuals prefer movies where threat is a central theme. In Study 4 (n = 137), participants were presented with a choice between morbid information and non-morbid information (image and text). Morbid curiosity predicted over half the variance (r2 = 0.53) in decisions to further investigate morbid information. These four studies provide evidence that morbid curiosity is a normally occurring psychological trait that can be assessed using the new 24-item Morbid Curiosity Scale.

An Infectious Curiosity: Morbid Curiosity and Media Preferences during a Pandemic

Abstract In this study conducted during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, I explored how trait morbid curiosity was related to interest in 1) factual information about Coronavirus that was specifically morbid; 2) general factual information about Coronavirus; 3) pandemic and virus genres of films and TV shows; and 4) genres of film and TV shows that center around threat more broadly. Participants (n = 125) who scored high in morbid curiosity reported increased interest, compared to usual, in pandemic/virus genres as well as horror and thriller genres. Morbidly curious participants were also more interested specifically in morbid information about Coronavirus. Furthermore, disgust sensitivity was unrelated to these preferences. These results provide initial evidence that trait morbid curiosity can predict particular media preferences in the face of a real threat, and that morbid curiosity may reflect an adaptive predisposition in some individuals toward learning about the dan­gerous and disgusting aspects of a threat.

Dark Tourism in Southern Spain (Córdoba): An Analysis of the Demand.

In recent decades, there has been a change in tourists’ tastes; they want to experience something novel. To satisfy this demand, a new type of tourism, known as “dark tourism”, has arisen; it has various modalities, among which cemetery tourism and ghost tourism stand out, in addition to very different motivations from those of the cultural tourist. In this type of tourism, cemeteries are not visited to appreciate their architecture or heritage but to explore a morbid curiosity about the people buried there; ghost tourism or paranormal tourism seizes on the desire to know the events that occurred there and tends to have macabre content. This study analyzes dark tourism in the province of Córdoba in southern Spain with the aim of knowing the profile of the tourist and his motivation. This study additionally will forecast the demand for this type of tourism, using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, which allow us to know this market’s evolution and whether any promotional action should be carried out to promote it.

Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic

One explanation for why people engage in frightening fictional experiences is that these experiences can act as simulations of actual experiences from which individuals can gather information and model possible worlds. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study (n = 310) tested whether past and current engagement with thematically relevant media fictions, including horror and pandemic films, was associated with greater preparedness for and psychological resilience toward the pandemic. Since morbid curiosity has previously been associated with horror media use during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also tested whether trait morbid curiosity was associated with pandemic preparedness and psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that fans of horror films exhibited greater resilience during the pandemic and that fans of “prepper” genres (alien-invasion, apocalyptic, and zombie films) exhibited both greater resilience and preparedness. We also found that trait morbid curiosity was associated with positive resilience and interest in pandemic films during the pandemic. Taken together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to frightening fictions allow audiences to practice effective coping strategies that can be beneficial in real-world situations.

COVID-19 en portada: radiografía ética de la cobertura fotográfica de la pandemia en España

Introducción: La cobertura informativa de las emergencias sanitarias se enfrenta a la tentación de sucumbir al alarmismo y el morbo. Objetivos: El propósito de la investigación fue valorar el grado de cumplimiento de los principios éticos del periodismo en la información sobre la COVID-19 en las portadas de la prensa española. Metodología: Análisis de contenido de las fotografías de portadas (n=344), publicadas entre el 1 de enero y el 15 de abril de 2020 (n=608) en periódicos de información general (n=6) cuya difusión abarca el 43,9% del número total de lectores diarios. Resultados: El 3,5% de imágenes cuestionó o vulneró preceptos deontológicos, en especial con relación al derecho a la intimidad y a la propia imagen. La cobertura resultó apropiada dado que no fueron significativas las violaciones en torno al dolor y sufrimiento, el alarmismo, la presunción de inocencia, la seguridad o la presión política. Conclusiones: El despliegue gráfico resultó contenido, respetuoso y se optó por amplias instantáneas metafóricas. Los mecanismos de protección frente a la pandemia —equipos de protección individual (EPI), mascarillas o gafas— dificultaban con frecuencia el reconocimiento de los protagonistas. Además, se recurrió con profusión al pixelado del rostro para impedir la identificación personal.