James Foley's murder, and the psychology of our not necessarily a good stimulation, but it is an effective one.
tion, but it is an effective one. This puts the
fascination with the gruesome
Dean Burnett | The Telegraph | 2:54PM BST 20 Aug 2014
After Islamic State militants in Iraq murdered reporter James Foley, they
released a video of his beheading, the New York Post put a picture of it on
its front page, and millions more have shared and seen the video via social
media. From this, to news sources revelling in the intimate details that may
have contributed to Robin William’s recent suicide, to countless website
dedicated to viewing genuine atrocities, to the current trend for “Torture
Porn” in mainstream horror (where the focus of the film is on realistic
brutal things happening to people, rather than plot or suspense), it seems
that humans have an endless fascination with horrific or gory details.
It’s even in mainstream magazines. Just take a look at the cover of any of
the “Take a Break” or “Chat” style magazines available everywhere. They
typically feature bright cheerful colours, a smiling but unnamed young
woman, and headlines about personal stories so horrific they’d make Clive
Barker retch. Why is this? Why do supposedly normal, wholesome people,
seem to revel in witnessing brutal, gruesome things happen to other
people? Why do we slow down to stare at car crashes?
There’s no clear-cut answer to this, but as is often the case, there are many
theories that offer at least part of an explanation.
At the most basic level, there’s the excitation-transfer theory. Seeing or
experiencing something so visceral, so brutal, is a powerful stimulation. It’s
person in a brief state of excitation, during which other stimulations can be
more vivid or intense. A comparable example would be riding a roller-
coaster; once you get off, you’re in that giddy, excitable state that comes
from an adrenalin rush, where you feel more “alive”. There’s a lot of
complex psychology behind risk-taking behaviour, and people can become
hooked on the experiences.
It’s possible that fascination with gore and brutal details is a darker,
somewhat twisted variation on this. We know it’s wrong, we know it’s
deeply unpleasant and grim, but this “wrongness” provides the same
stimulation, so we do it anyway, and get the vicarious thrill. CGI gore may
be enough for some, but to see actual, real horror could be even more
stimulating maybe, because there’s no need to suspend disbelief? And it’s
a “safe” form of risk taking; the stimulation is the same, but there’s no
actual threat to the individual observer, so it’s win-win in a macabre sort of
way.
There’s also plain old curiosity. People often feel compelled to know the
details purely for their own sake, and what can happen to the human body
when it is badly damaged seems to be something many are very curious
about. There may be evolutionary reasons for this; an awareness of and
interest in possible dangers and damage that could befall a human is
obviously a useful survival trait for hazardous environments, and seeing or
hearing terrible things that befall our fellow man would fall under this
category.
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Some would even argue that this morbid fascination for grisly details can
be a good thing. Some argue that all people have this dark element to their
psyche, this sinister component that seeks out unpleasant details or
situations or even causes them. Repressing this aspect of ourselves could
prove more harmful in the long run, whereas exposing yourself to grim
sights and details allows you to safely express it, providing catharsis and
improved well-being.
Not everyone is so driven to seek out the gruesome or the macabre of
course, but today’s media makes it easier than ever to find it, and then to
share it, even if those with whom you’re sharing have no desire to see it.
Dr Dean Burnett is a psychiatry lecturer at the University of Cardiff.
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Of course, not everyone believes this. And the flip side is that the
argument fascination with the macabre just gets more potent as you
become desensitised to such sights, and you require more intense
stimulation to provoke the same response. This is obviously not a healthy
way to be.

You could also point to the “just world hypothesis”. This is the theory that
all people believe the world is fundamentally fair, so when bad things
happen to people there’s a knee-jerk assumption that they deserve it for
some reason. We also try to distance ourselves from the victim by focusing
on how we are different to them. Watching others who aren’t us
experience terrible things could consolidate our belief that they definitely
won’t happen to us.

But there’s also the simple explanation that people revel in something so
bad precisely because it’s so bad. Countless studies have shown that bad
things have far more impact than good things on the human psyche. Bad
things happening are themselves a powerful draw for curious or thrill-
seeking humans, and there’s few things as bad as another human meeting
their untimely end in deeply unpleasant ways.