Date
4-26-2024
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Laura Rolen
Keywords
horror, trait morbid curiosity, social psychology, dark copers, white knucklers, adrenaline junkies, religiosity, final girl
Disciplines
Psychology
Recommended Citation
Brown, Charley Elles, "Trait Morbid Inquisitiveness: Horror Attraction, Religion, and the Final Girl" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5413.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5413
Abstract
People are attracted to horror entertainment, such as movies, video games, dark tourism, and human-made haunted attractions, to experience fear and scary play. It is also utilized in research on emotional responses. Three types of attractors have been identified: dark copers, white knucklers, and adrenaline junkies. In horror movies, the evolution of threat management is exemplified by the resourcefulness and adaptability of the final girl. Furthermore, the attraction to horror-based entertainment is linked to morbid curiosity. A new research perspective known as trait morbid curiosity has identified this fascination as the development of psychological traits to handle morbid, threatening, and scary scenarios. Additionally, religiosity in horror entertainment displays another variation of social connection and coping development that links attraction to horror and the trait of morbid curiosity. To enhance knowledge and inclusion of the themes of religion and fear attraction, a new scale was developed with the four attractors included as subscales; this scale is called the Morbid Inquisitiveness Attraction and Religiosity Scale (MIARS). Validity and reliability evidence were collected to assess the measurement characteristics of the overall and subscale scores on the MIARS. Although the overall scores displayed good internal consistency reliability and a strong correlation with the only other existing measure of this construct (the Morbid Curiosity Scale), the subscale scores displayed neither reliability nor adequate validity evidence. The outcomes are based on a small sample size of 97 participants, and the research was conducted entirely online via the completion of two surveys posted on one social media site. Future directions for research to continue improvement of the scale are discussed.
