reSee.it Podcast Summary
Curiosity about danger isn't just curiosity; it's a cognitive toolkit that reveals how we learn to anticipate threats. The guest explains that his path into morbid curiosity wasn't a lifelong plan; it grew from loving scary things as a kid and a pivot from archaeology to anthropology to psychology during his PhD. He notes a paradox: violence is often condemned yet sometimes celebrated, like Roman gladiatorial arenas. This tug between repulsion and attraction drew him to study fear in the wild, starting with haunted-house experiments at Orhus University in Denmark and expanding to the broader question of why we seek threat at all.
From there, he identifies four domains of morbid curiosity. First, witnessing violence; second, learning about the people who commit violence or their motives; third, the bodily consequences of violence and injury; and fourth, paranormal or supernatural possibilities. He argues that threat drives all four, and that our minds gain learning benefits by observing threats at a distance, much like predator inspection in gazelles. He contrasts in-person danger with safe storytelling, noting that books allow more control over vividness than movies, which shape our disgust and curiosity differently.
The discussion turns to dreams, nightmares, and dreaming as a way to rehearse threats offline, a theory supported by research on humans and even Mehanaku dream recounting. They describe how dreaming is metabolically costly but helps threat learning. The COVID-19 pandemic becomes a natural experiment: morbidly curious people reported greater psychological resilience, optimism, and lower anxiety and depression in early months, even after controlling for personality and income. They also debate the evolutionary function: curiosity balances fear and disgust, enabling safer exposure and better preparation for future threats.
Individual differences emerge: low to moderate correlations with disgust sensitivity, but strong ties to subclinical psychopathy, and age effects showing younger people more morbidly curious. Gender differences are nuanced: men more drawn to violence; women more drawn to the minds of dangerous people. He cites the zombie genre as a cross-domain magnet, tapping violence, danger, the supernatural, and body horror. They discuss film technique like 'monster enters left' as a cognitive cue to off-balance viewers. The interview ends with book publication details and the enthusiasm of a scholar who wants to share these ideas widely.