I have always been shocked by how common it seems to be for people to watch things like „knockout compilations“, beheadings etc.
In my school, we had a group of 4 kids that showed such content to everyone at the age of like 14. At this age it may be excused by edgy teenage behavior, but it’s not just them. There are many people that watch some of the most gruesome acts imaginable for their own „entertainment“. This is how they choose to spend their time.
How can this be? What psychological phenomena are behind this? I was never able to understand this
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The human brain is a threat-detection and threat-evaluation machine, and it’s not great at telling real from fake. Feeding it frightening or disturbing things tells it that those are genuine important threats to your life, and it starts trying to gather as much information as it can to keep you alive.
So when someone sees a video of a beheading, their brain might well conclude that there’s a beheader nearby. Then it says “well, let me learn about beheaders so I can avoid them,” and starts looking for more information. This translates into a fascination with beheadings, easily fed in the internet age.
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