[quote]malonetd wrote:
Yet, reading some of the descriptions, I am slightly curious. I don’t have a fucking clue why. Some of the descriptions alone sound extremely disturbing. I have a feeling I’m going to regret it if I do click on any of them.[/quote]
This prompted a bit of research which may not directly answer the question but may promote a bit of thought …
First off, a couple of key terms :
Catharsis - the process of relieving tensions - for example violence on screen providing a safe outlet for people’s violent tendencies
De-sensitization - The process by which, through repeated exposure to media violence, people come to accept violent behaviors as normal.
Maybe these terms go some way to explain why a person might be morally disgusted with this kind of viewing but still have a deep seated desire to view it.
Taking catharsis first, a (mentally balanced) individual may still want to view these things as an outlet for their more animal side. De-sensitization could be an attempt to come to terms and live with the violence we see every day on the news.
According to Gunter(2000) four specific effects of on screen violence were identified. I’ll list the ones I believe to be relevant in this scenario here.
1 - Arousal - A non-specific physiological response, whose ‘meaning’ is defined by the viewer in terms of the type of images being watched.
2 - Disinhibition - the reduction of inhibitions about behaving aggressively oneself, or coming to believe that aggression is a permitted or legitimate way of solving problems or attaining goals.
3 - Desensitization - the reduction in emotional response to viewing violence.
IMHO - Arousal - After food and shelter a human will seek an altered state of mind. i.e. Arousal. I’m not talking necessarily sexual here, but emotional. It’s in our nature to seek out things that give us an emotional response.
Disinhibition - We are so used to scenes of violence in the media in general and even sadly in our own lives that we seek out even nastier things to promote arousal.
What is worrying to me is where we (society) will go once the sort of media discussed here becomes mainstream (which will hopefully never happen). Once we can no longer get an emotional response (arousal) from such images, what could we possibly seek out next to fulfill that urge?