Morbid Curiosity
A motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena, measured as a stable and normally occurring trait.
What it is
Coltan Scrivner introduced a 24-item Morbid Curiosity Scale in 2021. Across four studies, higher scorers were more socially curious and preferred films built around a threat, scores were stable over four to six weeks, and the scale predicted choosing to look at morbid information. Scrivner describes the trait as normal rather than unusual.
In effect
In the article on why we love true crime, it names the pull toward stories of danger as an ordinary kind of curiosity.
What it does not say
It measures interest in information about danger. It does not say that people high in it seek out danger itself.
Sources
- Scrivner, C. (2021). The psychology of morbid curiosity: Development and initial validation of the morbid curiosity scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 183, 111139.