KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Scholars studying morbid curiosity found much to talk about but few answers at a University of Tennessee symposium on why people are fascinated by bad news.
Some blamed heredity. Others cited an environment created by power seekers in the mass media. About the only thing they agreed on was that morbid curiosity exists and more research is needed.
'Morbid curiosity is a fact of life that seems obvious from all the evidence around us,' said University of Tennessee journalism professor Jack Haskins, who oragnized the two-day symposium that ended Friday.
'At the direct experience level, one sees motorists stopping to ogle automobile wrecks, spectators drawn to burning buildings, crowds gathering at the scene of fights and riots,' he said. 'Examples are abundant in the mass media.'
Haskins said the symposium, entitled 'Morbid Curiosity and the Mass Media,' was the first attempt to explain why people seek bad news.
'Throughout human history, humans have been drawn to public spectacles involving bloody death and disfigurement to helpless victims, to public hangings, crucifixions and decapitations. Morbid curiosity, if not inborn, is at least learned at a very early age,' Haskins said.
Haskins predicted a 'vicious upward spiral' of bad news because of the media's desire to provide people with what they want rather than what they need. A major topic of debate among the communications and behavior experts was whether morbid curiosity is learned or is inherent in human nature.
'I am inclined to think morbid curiosity is a byproduct of reason. It can represent to our feelings what it is like to be the person standing on the gallows, being torn on the rack or giving suck to a vampire,' said Colin Beer, a professor at Rutgers University's Institute of Animal Behavior.
'Its animal roots are no more specific or direct than those leading to going to concerts or symposia on morbid curiosity,' he said.
He said, however, that evolutionary ancestors of humans may have had a 'fearful curiosity' that was developed as a survival mechanism.
Marvin Zuckerman, professor of psychology at the University of Delaware, said the most active sensation-seekers were not the most morbidly curious people.
'They get stimulus in real events,' he said.
Sensation-seeking, he said, apparently has two biological roots - high sex hormone levels and an enzyme that regulates chemicals in the brain.
'Most mayhem in society is caused by young males at the peak of testosterone levels,' he said.
