Why do people like to watch other people getting hurt

Post Reply New Topic

I've always had this annoying primal trait in that I love watching fights. It's not about watching people get hurt, it's about watching people burn off aggression, for me. Same way I like watching people smash musical equipment or do an action painting.

I have never liked watching accidents and have never laughed at one.

i am not interested in watching people get hurt, however i recently trawled youtube for all the "road rage" videos i could find because i accidentally watched one and i found it hilarious.

to see the antics of easily exasperated people in the process of a snowballing rise in aggression is so funny to me. i am not sure why. seeing people involved in a serious brawl over the fact that a blinker was not switched on is a health hazard for me because i may die laughing.

i do not like to see pain, but i like to see how trivial and petty the reasons for stupid peoples overreactions can be.

If I want to work out rage and frustration, I take it out myself: a punching bag, weeds to whack down, whatever. Seeing people get hurt just makes me feel worse.

I always try to feel empathy when I see someone suffering.

Yes done badly this makes me squirm, but the Brits are both very arrogant and self effacing at the same time, Fawlty Towers demonstrates this wonderfully.

I think a differentiation needs to be made here. I cannot watch shows where people get hurt unintentionally eg Funniest Home Videos is just not funny to me. When people deliberately put themselves in harms way it intrigues me as to "why do that" and I admit I will watch to see just how far they will go. The trouble is I suspect most people who deliberately allow themselve to be hurt are doing it for financial reasons, not because they have some fascinating perspective on life.

I will never watch it again after seeing a video where they had their child's small pet rodent sitting on top of a cage outside and a hawk or something swooped down and carried it away. At least the funny animal videos on animal planet didn't allow videos where animals were harmed. Another messed up video was of a small child sitting on a potty chair and complaining and crying out in pain. Nice parents there, "my child is ill and in pain, what should I do, help them or videotape it and send it to a funny video show?"

I read a post recently from someone who, through circumstances, was able to force someone to their bidding.

It was a salesman/installer type of person who had no interest in the proceedings, but because of his economic circumstance, was obligated to suffer through the posters child like presentation.

The poster stated that at the time he knew he was doing wrong and using his position to force compliance from the contractor. He also stated "he couldn't seem to stop" and wanted to know what prompted his "out-of-character (?) exhibition.

This popped up in my head a few days after reading the post. After thinking about it, it occurred to me the only explanation for this hideously rude act was that it was perpetrated by that little kid (inside) that felt he was hurt/cheated and then became insensitive and hurtful in turn and now felt because of "his" hurt it was ok to hurt others. And this poster was already at retirement age.

If you can't see this happening inside yourself there is never a reason for improvement/change.

den