Episode Summary
Executive Summary: The episode explores morbid curiosity—the interest in dangerous, scary, or gory material—and why people seek horror, true crime, and scary play. Dr. Colton Scrivener argues it’s a normal, widely distributed trait tied less to pathology than to learning, self-regulation, and growth, with potential benefits for children and adults when fear stays in a manageable “sweet spot.”
Main Topics: Defining morbid curiosity: Scrivener defines morbid curiosity as interest in potentially dangerous things, whether fictional threats or real-world dangers encountered through news and media. He notes the field lacked a clear consensus definition until his work. Why people enjoy horror and scary play: The discussion challenges the idea that horror fans are simply adrenaline junkies. Some are sensation seekers, but many use scary entertainment to test limits, regulate fear, and gain self-confidence through safe confrontation with threat. True crime, gore, and learning about danger: True crime and graphic content can be appealing because they offer low-risk learning about threats, clues, and dangerous behavior. Gore often functions as a signal of a monster’s formidability rather than mere shock value. Morbid curiosity, personality, and mental health: The guest explains that morbid curiosity is not a clinical indicator of psychopathy or pathology and shows only modest links to traits like openness, neuroticism, and rebelliousness, with weak or inconsistent ties to disgust and empathy. Scary play in childhood: Children’s rough-and-tumble and frightening play can help develop emotion regulation, resilience, and competence by exposing them to manageable fear in a safe setting. Therapeutic potential and future research: The episode highlights an emerging research frontier: identifying who benefits from fictional fear and under what conditions, with possible implications for anxiety, PTSD, and coping with real-world crises. Dreams, nightmares, and pandemic-related fear: Scrivener speculates nightmares may be an early form of threat simulation and notes that COVID-era nightmares and pandemic dreams support the idea that the mind rehearses dangers during sleep.
Key Arguments: Morbid curiosity is a normal trait distributed across the population, not a fringe or rare condition. Horror enjoyment is not mainly about adrenaline; for many, it is about learning, self-testing, and emotional growth. People actively regulate their experience of fear, increasing or decreasing immersion to stay in an enjoyable range. True crime’s appeal comes partly from safely learning about threats and criminal patterns. Gore can serve narrative and psychological functions by indexing danger, not just providing shock. High morbid curiosity does not imply psychopathy or other clinical pathology. Horror fans are not necessarily less empathetic; better measures suggest no difference in empathy and sometimes greater compassion. Scary play may be beneficial for children because it trains emotion regulation and coping. The most promising research question is when and why fictional fear becomes therapeutic for real-life stress or trauma.
Data Points: Morbid curiosity scale average: 3.41 - Average score referenced by the guest when discussing the online scale Podcast host self-score on morbid curiosity scale: 3.96/5 - Host disclosed her own result on the scale during the interview Publication year of guest PhD completion: 2022 - Scrivener said he graduated with his PhD in 2022 Number of Friday the 13th movies: 12 - Used in the introduction to illustrate the popularity of horror franchises Scream franchise latest installment referenced: 6th film - Mentioned as evidence of sustained appetite for horror Listener-suggested scale range: 5-point scale - Morbid curiosity test discussed as a web-based measure from 1 to 5 Framing of sleep: 8 hours a night / ideally a third of life - Used in discussion of dreaming and threat simulation Research time horizon mentioned: 5 to 10 years - Guest predicts a major increase in research on morbid curiosity in that period
Pivotal Quotes: "Morbid curiosity is simply a curiosity or an interest in things that are potentially dangerous." — Dr. Colton Scrivener: Definition of the core construct he studies "It seems like different kinds of scary play... can help you kind of feel out the sort of limits of your fear and what you're able to handle." — Dr. Colton Scrivener: Explanation of why horror and scary play can be psychologically useful "The most pertinent questions... [are] who seems to benefit from this and why, and under what circumstances?" — Dr. Colton Scrivener: He identifies the key future research question with therapeutic implications
Implications: Morbid curiosity appears to be a common, largely non-pathological trait with possible benefits for resilience, learning, and coping. Future research could inform therapeutic uses of horror, true crime, and safe fear-based play for children and adults.