Science Friday

Why Morbid Curiosity Is So Common—And So Fun

October 29, 2025

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  • Horror movie box office share has reached a historic high, potentially driven by an influx of new fans during the COVID-19 pandemic who sought cathartic experiences amidst uncertainty. 
  • Horror fans do not score lower in empathy; research suggests they score similarly or higher in affective empathy and cognitive empathy (perspective-taking) compared to non-fans. 
  • Morbid curiosity and sensation-seeking are distinct traits, with horror fans falling into categories like 'adrenaline junkies,' 'white knucklers' (who enjoy overcoming fear), or 'dark copers' (who use horror for emotional regulation). 

Segments

Horror Popularity and COVID Link
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(00:02:31)
  • Key Takeaway: Horror’s box office share reached its highest recorded level, potentially increasing after 2020 due to COVID-19 driving non-fans to watch scary content.
  • Summary: The box office share for horror films is around 17%, which is two to three times its typical share and the highest in recorded history. This surge began around 2020 when the share doubled to 12%, suggesting that people sought out horror movies during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Filmmakers have since taken note of this expanded audience base.
Empathy and Horror Fandom
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(00:04:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Horror fans score as high as or higher than others in affective empathy and cognitive empathy, contradicting the intuition that they must be less sensitive.
  • Summary: Horror fans score equally high in affective empathy, which is the ability to feel what others feel. They sometimes score higher in cognitive empathy, relating to perspective-taking. This is because watching horror involves empathizing with the protagonist undergoing a high-sensation experience, which causes the viewer’s own adrenaline response.
Sensation Seeking and Brain Chemistry
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(00:06:24)
  • Key Takeaway: High sensation seekers experience more dopamine (pleasure) and a lower cortisol (stress) response when exposed to chaotic experiences compared to low sensation seekers.
  • Summary: High sensation seekers often experience much more dopamine when exposed to unusual sensations, which is the pleasure neurotransmitter. Conversely, they tend to have a lower cortisol response, meaning they do not experience as much of a stress reaction. Low sensation seekers, like the host, experience high fear (stress hormone) without the corresponding sense of enjoyment.
Morbid Curiosity Quiz Results
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(00:07:22)
  • Key Takeaway: Morbid curiosity is a normally distributed trait, and it can exist independently of high sensation-seeking scores.
  • Summary: Listeners can take a morbid curiosity quiz available at sciencefriday.com/slash-morbid, which assesses interest in topics like dangerous people, violence, bodily injuries, and the paranormal. The scores are normally distributed, resembling an inverted U-shape on a chart. The host scored very low on violence-related curiosity but very high on paranormal curiosity, illustrating that these interests are not monolithic.
Categorizing Horror Fan Motivations
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(00:10:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Horror fans can be categorized into ‘adrenaline junkies,’ ‘white knucklers’ (who enjoy overcoming fear), or ‘dark copers’ (who use horror for emotional processing).
  • Summary: Research at a haunted attraction categorized attendees based on their motivation for experiencing fear. ‘White knucklers’ were afraid but enjoyed the opportunity to safely overcome their fear, viewing it as a challenge. ‘Dark copers’ felt the experience helped them better understand their own anxieties and fears.
Benefits of Experiencing Fear
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(00:16:48)
  • Key Takeaway: Experiencing scary things in a safe setting is a powerful practice tool for emotion regulation, potentially as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy for childhood anxiety.
  • Summary: The primary personal benefit of being scared in a safe setting is practicing emotion regulation skills. A lab in the Netherlands developed a scary game for anxious children that uses EEG headbands to reinforce calming down, making the player stronger in the game when relaxed. Repeated studies showed this scary game was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy for treating anxiety in kids.