Why is it that humans want to know the awful details of a murder?

[GiantWaterBottle]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this.
I've just been wondering, triggered by the recent details of an awful murder, I found myself reading all the details even while knowing the person is already dead so I can do nothing and that the details would stick with me and upset me.
Judging by the way these things are reported I think it must be something others do too (or I'm a total freak).

But I'm just interested in the why! Why do we seek it out, report on it, read it? When there is no obvious reason.

All thoughts welcome.

I suspect it’s sometimes in an attempt to find reasons why this terrible thing could never happen to us. So with the McCann case, parents could say “well, I’d never leave my children alone so it couldn’t happen to me”. In the case of a woman murdered when walking alone in a dark road in the middle of the night we can say “well I wouldn’t do that so I’m safe”. Etc etc

I find it so upsetting, I don't ever read about it and am definitely not fascinated by the subject. Today's news made me cry, the unimaginable horror of what happened is just so utterly incompressible. Sometimes I hate humankind so very much.

Incomprehensible obvs

I certainly don’t want to know - I make a point not to delve into any details. I feel strongly that it’s unsavoury, unedifying and hugely disrespectful of the deceased individual and I also think it’s dismissive of their family and friends and the pain they have to endure in their grief.

I think it is because the unknown is more frightening/disturbing than the known for some people.

It's just natural morbid curiosity. It'd probably be more odd if people weren't curious.

I wouldn't read gruesome details, reading someone was fataly stabbed for example is enough detail for me, anything more is just sensationalising it and totally unnecessary, it feels disrepectful to the victim and their families.

There are a lot of cases though that I really wish I could unwatch or unread.
However once I started to read or watch about them Id have felt guilty just turning it off. The victims can't just switch off to their torture can they.

@Awwlookatmybabyspider

It's just natural morbid curiosity. It'd probably be more odd if people weren't curious.

This.

I have a dark SOH plus a morbid curiosity for all things macabre.

I find it interesting, although as a PP said thee I some murders I've read about that I wish I hadn't.

To try to understand and make sense of what happened.

I’m a psychologist and work with offenders but I avoid reading any real life incidents. It’s weird! I hate thinking about what it must have been like for the victim so avoid that but I have empathy for the people o work with. Most have a trauma history that has led them in some way to their offending.

There's a feeling of if they had to endure it the least you can do is read about it, I think that about wars too.

I think it's human nature to a degree - we are a curious species, even if we are distressed by what we discover.

Personally I am intrigued at a psychological level - what drives people to commit heinous crimes against others, what should we be looking for.

Interestingly though, I shy away from any animal cruelty details - I can read all about what Fred West or Dennis Nilsen did, for example, and be disgusted or angry, but I only have to see an animal cruelty headline and absolutely cannot bear to hear or see any information. That seems to instantly break me for some reason. I do recall accidentally seeing something distressing on TV when I was about 9 relating to animal testing, I got into a right state and I wonder if that somewhat immature emotional reaction was frozen in time.