Interested in serial killers? Morbid curiosity in college students

A plethora of movies, television programs, podcasts, and online videos are dedicated to horror and terror, with fictional (e.g., zombies) and nonfictional (e.g., serial killing) themes. Morbid curiosity is a phenomenon where individuals attend to, or seek information about, horrid subjects, such as terror and death. Moreover, morbid curiosity has been tied with sexual curiosity and sensation seeking in past research, with men typically demonstrating more of each phenomenon. We hypothesized that interest in the topic of serial killers and other morbid academic and entertainment topics would be positively associated with morbid curiosity, sexual curiosity, and sensation seeking. Data supported these hypotheses with some notable gender differences. Viewed through the lens of evolutionary psychology, interest in horrific events, such as serial killing, may be a product of protective vigilance. We discuss these results, limitations, and future directions for research.

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in 'Current Psychology'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00896-w. The following terms of use apply: https://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/publication-policies/aam-terms-of-use.

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Work Title Interested in serial killers? Morbid curiosity in college students
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Marissa A. Harrison
  2. Erika J. Frederick
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Current Psychology
Publication Date July 1, 2020
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00896-w
Deposited November 09, 2021

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