# Why do we enjoy horrors and tragedy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455 "2004-01-14T21:18:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kitten\_phd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e495f1/32.png) [@Kitten\_phd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kitten_phd)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/1 "2004-01-14T21:18:34Z")
Why do we enjoy watching films that make us feel negative emotions like sadness and fear? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/2 "2004-01-14T22:56:31Z")
Because it’s not happening to us. ---
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/3 "2004-01-15T00:05:42Z")
I think some animals are attracted to screams of pain or sadness as part of their altruistic instincts. Empathy is a vital characteristic for group survival. Maybe you can consider this a form of curiosity, or rather curiosity is a part of the instinct. I don’t think that fear is a wholly unpleasant emotion for that reason. At least a small part of fear must be attraction. It’s similar to the way people overcome fear of danger and rush into a fight. They have a particle of self-destruction in their instinct for survival. This inconsistency or “flaw” also helps preserve the group. Because the emotions of fear and sadness are vital to our nature it is natural to want to experience them, to stimulate them occasionally. But it is especially pleasurable when deep down we know we are safe. I was just reading about “keeners” or professional mourners in a vocabulary book. Somehow I think there is a connection. ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/4 "2004-01-15T02:38:26Z")
> [@Ex Machina](#): > > I was just reading about “keeners” or professional mourners in a vocabulary book. Somehow I think there is a connection. I have never heard the word “keener” What is a professional mourner? Why would someone mourn “professionally?” Thanks for explaining. Isabelle ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/5 "2004-01-15T02:42:43Z")
The funeral director would hire professional mourners to fill out the funeral procession. Makes the guest of honor look like a big shot, impresses the neighbours who all thought he was a bum. ---
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/6 "2004-01-15T03:25:07Z")
This site will explain about the tradition of “keening”. [www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/keening.html](http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/keening.html) Apparently there was “competitive keening”. Relating this to the OP, it shows one way that death became an opportunity for entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![slackersavant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@slackersavant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slackersavant)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/7 "2004-01-15T07:01:42Z")
The Greeks were definitely into tragedies and had the concept of catharsis, or emotional release. I checked that word and it was described as “a purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience.” So you cry over a play and feel better afterward. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/8 "2004-01-15T14:46:28Z")
As Stephen King put it in the Green Mile:It always feels so good when someone is caught with his pants down and his dick up and it isn’t you. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/9 "2004-01-15T15:00:26Z")
Some of the earliest printed ephemera are the handouts and broadsides regarding crime: confessions of people being hanged at Tyburn, along with gory woodcuts and descriptions of their crimes. “That’s just the kinda hairpin we are,” as Jimmy Cagney would say. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-enjoy-horrors-and-tragedy/224455/10 "2004-01-15T18:36:16Z")
I think there is another reason. You see artists, painters, writers, actors ect., are better at portraying emotions then we are. We _have_ the same emotions but have a hard time expressing it. For instance when my brother passed away I didn’t really know what to say. But someone else did. > [@](#): > > -Bear with me > My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, > And I must pause till it come back to me. > > William Shakespeare Julias Caeser Act III scene ii Of course I disagree with you assessment that sadness and grief are negative emotions. I don’t break emotions into those catagories. We also like ot watch people fall in love for the same reason I stated above. I can’t really express how much I love my wife as well as an artist. So we watch a romantic film.