The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale (2025)

Scrivner, C. (2021). The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 183, Article 111139. https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/a7af2283-2358-47d0-9a5b-8ca740dd2bc5/The%20psychology%20of%20morbid%20curiosity_Development%20and%20initial%20validation%20of%20the%20morbid%20curiosity%20scale.pdf?id=3711465

Scrivner, Coltan. / The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale. In: Personality and Individual Differences. 2021 ; Vol. 183.

@article{453c378fe3db40b1a534041325c6e86d,

title = "The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale",

abstract = "The success of horror films, popularity of true crime, and prevalence of violence in the news implies that morbid curiosity is a common psychological trait. However, research on morbid curiosity is largely absent from the psychological literature. In this paper, I present a psychometric tool for assessing morbid curiosity, defined as a motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena, and use it to investigate the psychological nature of morbid curiosity. In studies 1 and 2 (n total = 1370), the Morbid Curiosity Scale was developed and its relationship to personality was assessed. Morbidly curious individuals were rebellious, socially curious, and low in animal reminder disgust. Study 3 (n = 317) demonstrated that trait morbid curiosity is stable over 4–6 weeks and that morbidly curious individuals prefer movies where threat is a central theme. In Study 4 (n = 137), participants were presented with a choice between morbid information and non-morbid information (image and text). Morbid curiosity predicted over half the variance (r 2 = 0.53) in decisions to further investigate morbid information. These four studies provide evidence that morbid curiosity is a normally occurring psychological trait that can be assessed using the new 24-item Morbid Curiosity Scale.",

keywords = "Curiosity, Disgust, Horror, Morbid curiosity, Scale, Threat, Violence",

author = "Coltan Scrivner",

year = "2021",

language = "English",

volume = "183",

journal = "Personality and Individual Differences",

issn = "0191-8869",

publisher = "Pergamon Press",

}

Scrivner, C 2021, 'The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale', Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 183, 111139. <https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/a7af2283-2358-47d0-9a5b-8ca740dd2bc5/The%20psychology%20of%20morbid%20curiosity_Development%20and%20initial%20validation%20of%20the%20morbid%20curiosity%20scale.pdf?id=3711465>

The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale. / Scrivner, Coltan.
In: Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 183, 111139, 2021.

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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AU - Scrivner, Coltan

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The success of horror films, popularity of true crime, and prevalence of violence in the news implies that morbid curiosity is a common psychological trait. However, research on morbid curiosity is largely absent from the psychological literature. In this paper, I present a psychometric tool for assessing morbid curiosity, defined as a motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena, and use it to investigate the psychological nature of morbid curiosity. In studies 1 and 2 (n total = 1370), the Morbid Curiosity Scale was developed and its relationship to personality was assessed. Morbidly curious individuals were rebellious, socially curious, and low in animal reminder disgust. Study 3 (n = 317) demonstrated that trait morbid curiosity is stable over 4–6 weeks and that morbidly curious individuals prefer movies where threat is a central theme. In Study 4 (n = 137), participants were presented with a choice between morbid information and non-morbid information (image and text). Morbid curiosity predicted over half the variance (r 2 = 0.53) in decisions to further investigate morbid information. These four studies provide evidence that morbid curiosity is a normally occurring psychological trait that can be assessed using the new 24-item Morbid Curiosity Scale.

AB - The success of horror films, popularity of true crime, and prevalence of violence in the news implies that morbid curiosity is a common psychological trait. However, research on morbid curiosity is largely absent from the psychological literature. In this paper, I present a psychometric tool for assessing morbid curiosity, defined as a motivation to seek out information about dangerous phenomena, and use it to investigate the psychological nature of morbid curiosity. In studies 1 and 2 (n total = 1370), the Morbid Curiosity Scale was developed and its relationship to personality was assessed. Morbidly curious individuals were rebellious, socially curious, and low in animal reminder disgust. Study 3 (n = 317) demonstrated that trait morbid curiosity is stable over 4–6 weeks and that morbidly curious individuals prefer movies where threat is a central theme. In Study 4 (n = 137), participants were presented with a choice between morbid information and non-morbid information (image and text). Morbid curiosity predicted over half the variance (r 2 = 0.53) in decisions to further investigate morbid information. These four studies provide evidence that morbid curiosity is a normally occurring psychological trait that can be assessed using the new 24-item Morbid Curiosity Scale.

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KW - Scale

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SN - 0191-8869

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Scrivner C. The Psychology of Morbid Curiosity: Development and Initial Validation of the Morbid Curiosity Scale. Personality and Individual Differences. 2021;183:111139.