You’re taking a walk in some out of the way place, and discover a body. But not all bodies are created equal, so please rank from least to most horrifying the state of the body you found:
You can assume that cause of death/age/sex are identical for all four corpses.
I know how I’d rank them, but I’m not sure that everyone feels the same, hence a morbid poll.
MOST HORRIFYING
Body of someone dead for weeks
Body of someone dead for hours
Mummified body
Skeleton
LEAST HORRIFYING
Rational - the body that’s been dead for weeks is going to have some decomposition, hence the added gross factor.
Someone dead for weeks (most horrifying)
Someonedead for hours
Mummified body
Skeleton (least horrifying)
I have found a few dead folks in my time, including a kid run over by a truck who had been dead for the length of time it took me to run from next door, on hearing his mother screaming. But I think if I was out walking and found what I **suspected **was a body, I would give it a wide berth and call the cops. I’ve seen CSI, why contaminate the crime scene.
Depends on the circumstances - the body of someone recently dead would be deeply disturbing if their death appeared to be the result of foul play or dangerous animals - because the risk could still be present.
But assuming it’s just someone who dropped dead of a heart attack or something,
Someone dead for weeks (most horrifying)
Mummified body
Someonedead for hours
Skeleton (least horrifying)
Finding the body of a child would be more disturbing to me than finding the body of an adult, in similar circumstances.
I’m not horrified by any of those. I might well be fearful if I were to discover a freshly slain body due to possible imminent danger, but otherwise, they’re just bodies.
You’re a tougher person than I am, then. Sure, they’re just bodies - but there’s strong evidence we’ve got all sorts of fairly specialized neural hardware for interacting with other human bodies that are walking around and doing things. The sheer wrongness of one that’s no longer acting within that framework is … unsettling.
Yes, but there’s still the level of “Eww! Gross! What is that smell??? :: puke ::” and I think that the stench of decay + vomiting = “horror” even if I’m not particularly “fearful” of the corpse.
Body of someone dead for weeks
Body of someone dead for hours
Mummified body
Skeleton
Like most others:
Body of someone dead for weeks
Body of someone dead for hours
Mummified body
Skeleton
Of the 4, I’ve never encountered an actively decomposing body. I anticipate that would squick me out.
The other 3 are about evenly ranked and don’t bother me.
Up until i left in 1999 CHicago pd made their officers bag the dead body’s we ran into. IT was a great deal for the wagon man because he got paid off by the funeral homes he bought the body too…
(statute of limitations is up on that i believe) I think that absolute worst are the ones in water… and the next worst would be the ones during the heat wave of 1996… old people were literally cooking in hot apts. I plan on taking my son to the morgue when he turns 17… its will make u appreciate life.
Least to most:
Skeleton
Mummified body
Body of someone dead for hours
Body of someone dead for weeks
The grosser it looks and smells the worst it is.
Most to least:
Mummified body (interesting under glass, but otherwise, eewww)
Dead for weeks
Dead for hours
Skeleton
A friend and I may have found a dead body when we were in 5th grade or so - we were walking on the front grounds of a school for the mentally disabled and there was a kid in the ivy. We just kind of looked at him, and wandered away. I would react completely differently now. BTW, we couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead.
Least - Most
Mummified body - Skeleton - dead for hours - dead for weeks
Nice username / post combo.
Did my [thread=546108]dog find it[/thread]? Cause, if so, first thing is a hearty “Good Boy, Who’s a Good Boy” and a treat.
Mummified body ; Body of someone dead for hours ; Skeleton ; Body of someone dead for weeks
In order from most horrifying to least.
Body of someone dead for weeks.
Mummified body
Skeleton
Body of someone dead for hours. (Assuming the manner of death didn’t involve decapitation or defenestration or something.)
You forgot - “Discovered it by stepping/falling into decomposing body.” 
Hee-hee.
Let’s see, back to the OP:
MOST
Dead for weeks
Dead for hours
Skeleton
Mummified
LEAST
Somehow, I find mummies fascinating. Go figure.