It really was like a train wreck - I couldn't look away.
November 15, 2007 9:40 AM   Subscribe

[Possible chatfilter] What makes people stop to stare at train wrecks? Or car accidents? Or any other morbid thing that they will regret seeing for a long time afterwards?

So my husband showed me this disgusting video that's making the rounds online, and like a fool, I actually watched it all the way through. Now I can't get it out of my head, and I have this strong urge to tell someone else. I haven't told anyone yet, but I'm trying to figure out why I want to, and why I couldn't look away in the first place.

I guess I could understand some sort of reason for watching dangerous stuff happen to other people as a form of preventing yourself from doing the same harmful thing. But what about the disgusting videos, like half the stuff posted on YouTube? I don't see what makes some people, myself included, watch them the whole way through, while saying, "That's the sickest, most disgusting thing I've ever seen. I can't believe I actually watched that."

Of course, I could be mostly alone in this, and if I am, it just means I don't understand how I think.

I'm hoping this isn't chatfilter, but if it is, please forgive me. My curiousity outweighed my good sense.
posted by mitzyjalapeno to Human Relations (2 answers total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: There's a kernel of a good question here about reactions to tragedy/trauma/grisliness, but, yes, this is pretty dang chatty as presented. If you want to try again next week, that's fine. -- cortex

 
Partly it's the same thing that makes us watch movies in general: novelty, catharsis, empathy, vicarious experience.
posted by Rykey at 9:53 AM on November 15, 2007


I was the third person to come upon a horrific car accident in rural Utah. I normally slow down for wrecks, but one look at the car and I didn't go any closer once it became apparent that I wasn't needed. The front half of the car had been crushed into the back seat. The SUV that had collided head on with the car, which had drifted into oncoming traffic, was upside down.

I don't usually see anything too horrific while driving past something on the freeway, except for a semi that had driven straight into a tree when the driver fell asleep/had a heart attack, and the front of the cab was compressed to about two feet.

So there's a distinction between accidents that are being cleaned up and looking at mangled metal, and situations where someone is dying.
posted by mecran01 at 9:53 AM on November 15, 2007


« Older Content management for dummies   |   Will I get a crick in my neck from watching a TV... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.