1276: Coltan Scrivner | The Evolutionary Logic of Morbid Curiosity
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What is the psychology behind morbid curiosity?
Jordan here. Before we start this show, I want to let you know this episode contains violence and some explicit themes, so no kids in the car for this one. And if you leave the kids in the car and you still play the episode, don't blame me when they have nightmares. Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show.
Darwin, of course, was famous for his theory of evolution. He was a theorist. Heard about this story from a zoologist named Alfred Brim, who gave a story about these monkeys that saw a snake inside of a bag. This was an experiment that he did. A monkey would look inside the bag and scream, and then another monkey would come up and look inside the bag and scream and run away. The other monkeys had to come up and see it because he survived. That other monkey survived. He was fine. And he signaled danger. So I kind of want to know what that thing is. And that's a very similar thing to, oh, this thing is terrible. You don't want to see it. Now I kind of do.
Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long form conversations with a variety of amazing folks, from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers, even the occasional drug trafficker, former jihadi, or four star general. In fact, if you're new to the show or you want to tell your friends about it, and I always appreciate it when you do that, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on topics like persuasion and negotiation, psychology, geopolitics, disinformation, China, North Korea, crime and cults, and more.
That'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show. Just visit jordanharbinger.com slash start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started. Today we're talking about why so many of us are drawn to things that are objectively disturbing. Horror movies, true crime, car accidents we can't stop staring at, haunted hotels you swear you'd never pay for, but you still want to hear all of the details. Are horror fans secretly violent? Is morbid curiosity a bug in the human brain, or is it a feature that kept us alive back in the day? And why does Halloween feel cozy to some people, even though it's basically a celebration of morbidity and death. We're getting into the neuroscience of fear, why scary play works, why empathetic people often love horror, and why enjoying blood in Mortal Kombat doesn't mean you're about to snap even if Nintendo really wanted you to think so.
So if you've ever rubbernecked a car crash, binged true crime for research purposes, or felt weirdly relaxed watching something like Saw, you're definitely going to feel extremely seen today. Here we go with Colton Scribner. You were born to be a scientist. You're named after a mineral.
Yeah, I didn't know that until later on. It's like a combination mineral, right? The unfortunate thing is if you search my name, there aren't a lot of people with my name that is spelled C-O-L-T-A-N. The only other thing in the world that's spelled like that is this like slave mining that happens in the Congo.
Yes. Before that was a well-known thing, I met this guy at a club in New York because I was friends with a DJ. And she's like, this is my friend. And I was like, oh, you want to go dance? He's like, I can't dance because we're all going on the dance floor. And he's like, I can't dance. And I was like, don't worry about it. I'm a terrible dancer. He's like, no, I literally can't because I have... $30,000 worth of gold strapped to my leg. And I was like, okay, first of all, why? And he's like, well, I just came from the airport, but also I don't want to leave this in my hotel room and it only has a really crappy safe. And I just flew in from Sierra Leone or something like that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the psychology behind morbid curiosity?
0:00–6:10
2
Why are horror movies appealing to some audiences?
6:10–8:21
3
What role does true crime play in understanding danger?
8:21–21:10
4
How can we define morbid curiosity in relation to human behavior?
21:10–47:18
5
How do zebras learn to assess predator danger?
47:18–48:10
6
What role does morbid curiosity play in human behavior?
48:10–49:31
7
How do dreams relate to threat learning in humans?
49:31–51:34
8
What insights can horror movies provide about our fears?
51:34–1:33:11
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Jordan Harbinger Show
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