Murder Mystery

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Psychologist Coltan Scrivener explains why people seek out violence, horror, true crime, and disaster stories: morbid curiosity can help us learn about threats, mentally rehearse possible dangers, and manage anxiety through controlled exposure. Research discussed suggests horror fans were more resilient during COVID-19, while evidence does not support stereotypes that they lack empathy. Scary entertainment may also help people assess and bond with others.

Main Topics: Morbid curiosity as threat learning: Scrivener defines morbid curiosity as interest in information about potential threats, not as a pathological or immoral trait. Animal predator inspection offers an evolutionary parallel: observing danger can provide useful information without immediately fleeing. Why frightening stories become popular during real crises: Examples include students choosing a violent film after a campus murder and audiences turning to Contagion and horror movies during COVID-19. Scrivener argues people use stories to make unfamiliar threats more understandable. Stories as safe simulations: Fiction lets people experience a threat from a first-person perspective without encountering it in reality. Such narratives can help audiences imagine possible futures, learn about dangers, and remember information more readily than isolated facts. Horror, anxiety, and resilience: Scrivener’s pandemic-era research found that horror fans reported less psychological distress and that people high in morbid curiosity reported greater positive resilience. He proposes that a controllable fictional threat can interrupt vague anxious rumination and allow the body to relax once the story ends. Scary entertainment as a social activity: Watching horror or visiting haunted attractions with others may reveal how companions respond under pressure, support one another, and cooperate. Shared fear can also create closeness, a dynamic once described as the “snuggle theory” of horror. Horror fans and empathy: Although critics and audiences often assume horror fans are cruel or lacking in empathy, Scrivener’s studies found no general association between horror fandom and lower empathy. Some fans of paranormal horror scored somewhat higher in cognitive empathy.

Key Arguments: Interest in disturbing content need not reflect approval of violence or poor character; it can be an adaptive effort to gather information about danger. When a real threat is unfamiliar or uncertain, people may turn to frightening stories because they offer a coherent, accessible account of what could happen and how people might respond. Fictional danger provides a safer form of threat inspection than direct exposure, while story structure helps people imagine events from a first-person perspective and retain what they learn. Controlled scary entertainment may help some people manage anxiety: it gives diffuse worry a specific, controllable focus and can interrupt rumination. Scary stories may offer social information as well as individual learning, because a companion’s behavior in a simulated threat can suggest how they might cooperate in difficult circumstances. The stereotype that horror fans are unkind or unempathic is not supported by the research described; horror engagement can involve imagining the victim’s perspective and feeling fear on their behalf.

Data Points: Contagion Google Trends popularity index: About 6 in 2019; 84 by January 2020; 100 in March 2020 - The movie’s search interest rose sharply as COVID-19 reports spread and lockdowns began; the index is described on a 1-to-100 scale. Contagion’s position in the Warner Bros. catalog: From approximately 270th or 271st to second most popular - Scrivener describes the film’s rapid rise in popularity during the early pandemic. Relative household reach of Nintendo and Sega systems: Super Nintendo systems outnumbered Sega systems by about 5 to 1 - Despite Sega’s smaller installed base, its uncensored version of Mortal Kombat outsold Nintendo’s edited version by several factors. Horror resilience study sample: A couple hundred people - Researchers recruited participants online during the early COVID-19 pandemic and found horror fans reported less psychological distress, after accounting for several demographic and personality factors. Evolutionary history referenced for human storytelling: About 500 million years - Scrivener uses this figure to frame the deep evolutionary roots of brains that understand experience from a first-person perspective.

Pivotal Quotes: "The curiosity itself is not pathological, it's not bad. But because the object of the curiosity is about a potential threat, I've called it morbid curiosity." — Coltan Scrivener: His definition distinguishes interest in threats from being morally or psychologically unhealthy. "Humans have this incredible ability to forecast into possible futures and imagine what kinds of behaviors are adaptive, what kinds of behaviors are maladaptive, and what these things might look like, how we can prepare for them." — Coltan Scrivener: He explains how stories can help people mentally rehearse dangers without facing them directly. "Maybe horror kind of is like fighting fire with fire." — Coltan Scrivener: He describes how a specific fictional threat may redirect generalized anxiety and interrupt rumination.

Implications: Dark entertainment is not, by itself, evidence of bad character. It may support threat learning, emotional regulation, and social connection, though the resilience findings are associations rather than proof that horror causes better coping.