Morbid Curiosity-Interview with Coltan Scrivner, PhD

Coltan Scrivner, PhD has just published Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look. He defines morbid curiosity "...a curiosity about things that are threatening or potentially dangerous". In the interview and in his book he explains why it is important to be curious about things that are dangerous. He provides an entirely new perspective about why children enjoy scary stories, the appeal of horror movies, haunted houses and true crime stories. All of these activities help you become familiar and explore the sensation of being afraid in a fictional context which in turn has been shown to help you with real life fears and dangers. For more information about Coltan Scrivner, here is his website

You can listen to Morbid Curiosity-Interview with Coltan Scrivner, PhD online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Morbid Curiosity-Interview with Coltan Scrivner, PhD is an episode from Your Anxious Child by Edward Plimpton.

This episode is 46:48 long.

This episode was published on Dec 8, 2025.

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