I had a great chat with Dr. Coltan Scrivner, a leading expert on the science of horror, true crime, and morbid curiosity. Boy was this a fun chat! I must admit, I score pretty high in all forms of curiosity, including morbid curiosity so I had so many questions for him about his groundbreaking research!
Colton defines morbid curiosity as an interest in or curiosity about unpleasant things, especially death. In this episode we take a deep div into the various studies that have been conducted on this topic so far. Did you know that the average person possesses at least some degree of morbid curiosity? However, some people are much more interested in horror movies, horror stories, and true crime documentaries. What are these people like? The results may surprise you! As Dr. Scrivenr puts it in the title of one of his papers, there exist “bleeding-heart horror fans”. Maybe you will identify as one. Regardless of whether you score high in morbid curiosity, I think you’ll find this conversation fascinating.
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