The Vsauce video explores why humans are drawn to morbid or disturbing things, such as car accidents, true crime, and gruesome images. The host discusses a 1924 experiment by psychologist Carney Landis, who photographed people's reactions to various stimuli, including being asked to cut off the head of a living rat.
The video suggests that our brains are wired to be curious about unpleasant things, and that this curiosity can serve as a form of catharsis, allowing us to confront and process our emotions. The host also notes that social pressures and taboos can make morbid topics more interesting and desirable.
The video also touches on the concept of "morbid curiosity," which is driven by a desire to understand and make sense of the world. This curiosity can lead us to explore and engage with unpleasant topics, even if they make us uncomfortable.
Ultimately, the video concludes that our attraction to morbid things is complex and multifaceted, and that it can serve a range of purposes, from catharsis and empathy to social comparison and a desire for control.
Here are the key facts from the text:
1. In 1924, psychologist Carney Landis conducted an experiment where he drew lines on people's faces, photographed them in various scenarios, and subjected them to actual emotions instead of pretending to feel them.
2. Landis's experiment involved activities such as smelling ammonia, looking at pornographic images, and handling slimy frogs.
3. The most intense directive in Landis's experiment involved ordering participants to cut off the head of a living rat while being photographed.
4. Initially, most participants refused to cut the head off the rat, but eventually, two-thirds agreed to do so.
5. A 13-year-old boy was included in the experiment, which was referred to the psychology department by a doctor for high blood pressure thought to be caused by emotional instability.
6. Many believe the boy's inclusion in the experiment was an accident.
7. If replicated today, Landis might be arrested for his experiment.
8. Neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine are released when we are scared, preparing us to take on a threat or successfully escape from it.
9. Dopamine is part of the brain's reward system and is released in response to pleasurable things like sex and food.
10. When dopamine systems are inhibited in laboratory animals, they will cease to seek out food and literally starve to death.
11. The brain contains systems that motivate seeking, approaching, and curiosity for their own sake.
12. The "boomerang effect" refers to the phenomenon where pressure to not do something can actually make people more likely to do that thing.
13. The "Streisand effect" refers to the phenomenon where trying to suppress something unintentionally makes it more widely distributed.
14. In 2003, Barbra Streisand sued to suppress a photo published online, but the lawsuit made the photo more widely distributed.
15. Social comparison theory describes and predicts behavior where people seek out evaluations of themselves in comparison to others.
16. Researcher Blenda Sparks at Purdue University has studied the way terrifying films affect us and found that viewers often feel stronger and more satisfied after watching them.
17. The term "schadenfreude" refers to the pleasure derived from others' misfortunes.
18. The "McCobb" is a trumpet made from a human leg bone used in Himalayan Buddhist rituals.
19. Eugen Luigi Ion published incredible images of corpses cut into stackable slices in the early 1900s.
20. Researcher Eric G. Wilson says that our attraction to the morbid is on some level a desire to experience someone else's suffering.
21. Morbid curiosity is often about the imagination and imagining what it would be like to be that other person.
22. Empathetic feelings remind us that our time is limited and that we are fragile and can bring us closer together.
23. The book "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematorium" by Caitlin Doughty explores the facilitation of meaning, acceptance, and empathy through the morbid.
24. Accepting death doesn't mean that you won't be devastated when someone you love dies, but it means you will be able to focus on your grief unburdened by bigger existential questions.
25. A study in Finland found that children were four times as likely to be scared by their usual television programs if a parent was in the room.
26. The "Oh mom, I flinched" theory suggests that to a young child, almost everything is brand new, but parents are older and wiser, and if they are scared of what's on TV, it can affect how the child feels.
27. The "encryption theory of humor" suggests that one of the great roles humor plays is in measuring who's inside and who's outside, who's similar and who's socially or ideologically different.