James Foley's murder, and the psychology of our fascination with the gruesome

It’s even in mainstream magazines. Just take a look at the cover of any of the “Take a Break” or “Chat” style magazines available everywhere. They typically feature bright cheerful colours, a smiling but unnamed young woman, and headlines about personal stories so horrific they’d make Clive Barker retch. Why is this? Why do supposedly normal, wholesome people, seem to revel in witnessing brutal, gruesome things happen to other people? Why do we slow down to stare at car crashes?There’s no clear-cut answer to this, but as is often the case, there are many theories that offer at least part of an explanation.At the most basic level, there’s the excitation-transfer theory. Seeing or experiencing something so visceral, so brutal, is a powerful stimulation. It’s not necessarily a good stimulation, but it is an effective one. This puts the person in a brief state of excitation, during which other stimulations van be more vivid or intense. A comparable example would be riding a roller-coaster; once you get off, you’re in that giddy, excitable state that comes from an adrenalin rush, where you feel more “alive”. There’s a lot of complex psychology behind risk-taking behaviour, and people can become hooked on the experiences.It’s possible that fascination with gore and brutal details is a darker, somewhat twisted variation on this. We know it’s wrong, we know it’s deeply unpleasant and grim, but this “wrongness” provides the same stimulation, so we do it anyway, and get the vicarious thrill. CGI gore may be enough for some, but to see actual, real horror could be even more stimulating maybe, because there’s no need to suspend disbelief? And it’s a “safe” form of risk taking; the stimulation is the same, but there’s no actual threat to the individual observer, so it’s win-win in a macabre sort of way.There’s also plain old curiosity. People often feel compelled to know the details purely for their own sake, and what can happen to the human body when it is badly damaged seems to be something many are very curious about. There may be evolutionary reasons for this; an awareness of and interest in possible dangers and damage that could befall a human is obviously a useful survival trait for hazardous environments, and seeing or hearing terrible things that befall our fellow man would fall under this category.Some would even argue that this morbid fascination for grisly details can be a good thing. Some argue that all people have this dark element to their psyche, this sinister component that seeks out unpleasant details or situations or even causes them. Repressing this aspect of ourselves could prove more harmful in the long run, whereas exposing yourself to grim sights and details allows you to safely express it, providing catharsis and improved well-being.Of course, not everyone believes this. And the flip side is that the argument fascination with the macabre just gets more potent as you become desensitised to such sights, and you require more intense stimulation to provoke the same response. This is obviously not a healthy way to be.You could also point to the “just world hypothesis”. This is the theory that all people believe the world is fundamentally fair, so when bad things happen to people there’s a knee-jerk assumption that they deserve it for some reason. We also try to distance ourselves from the victim by focusing on how we are different to them. Watching others who aren’t us experience terrible things could consolidate our belief that they definitely won’t happen to us.But there’s also the simple explanation that people revel in something so bad precisely because it’s so bad. Countless studies have shown that bad things have far more impact than good things on the human psyche. Bad things happening are themselves a powerful draw for curious or thrill-seeking humans, and there’s few things as bad as another human meeting their untimely end in deeply unpleasant ways.Not everyone is so driven to seek out the gruesome or the macabre of course, but today’s media makes it easier than ever to find it, and then to share it, even if those with whom you’re sharing have no desire to see it.(telegraph.co.uk)Bakudaily.Az